


Twisted Souls

by Yoru_The_Rogue



Series: DC Yoru'verse TB AU: A Dark Crucible [2]
Category: The Batman (Cartoon)
Genre: AU shit, Canon-Blending, F/M, Multi, Not Beta Read, Older Work, Personal Headcanon 'Verse, The DC Yoru-Verse, also like only a handful of the OCs in here are mine, but I wrote up an explanation for the story and additional "ending" drabbles, cancelled story, heavy use of OCs, i think that i put some kind of hints at love triangle bullshit in there at points, look i wanted a Ra's and Strange team-up since forever and it didn't happen so I MADE IT HAPPEN, paraquel, people kept causing me shit so i wound up being forced to cancel this fic forever and a half ago, reviews not needed, shit happens; people die; Ra's Al Ghul and Hugo Strange attempted to summon an eldritch being, so it's all good, some OCxCanon, some OCxOC, the rest all belonged to people I knew in the fandom at the time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-16
Updated: 2013-02-04
Packaged: 2019-06-20 05:38:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 56,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15527280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yoru_The_Rogue/pseuds/Yoru_The_Rogue
Summary: After a mass breakout of Arkham Asylum, several of the inmates seem to be drawn together by the lines of fate...or is it design? Deeper in the shadows, two of the most powerful and dangerous men in Gotham are plotting the city's downfall. And Batman may have to ally himself with his foes if he hopes to save his city.[[CANCELED. EXPLANATIONS AND 'ENDINGS' POSTED WITHIN. OC-centric or OC-heavy, whatever you wanna call it. Also a whole heckin' bunch of canon-blending and hinted shipping bullshit.]]





	1. Angel Of Death

Tonight was the big job, the one on Gotham PD's headquarters.  It was a warm summer night, and darkness had long since fallen, the Gothamites fleeing indoors at the shadow of its black cloak.

_A wise enough move for the mundane_ , she mused, still crouching on a rooftop some buildings away, bringing the binoculars up to her eyes again.  Most of the lights were out by now, but there were still a couple that needed to shut off before she could do anything.  She'd been there since five o'clock, but she'd wait as long as she needed.  Jim Gordon had to leave his office and whoever the hell was in the storage room needed to get out of there.  She brought the binoculars down in order to peek at her watch, and hissed with displeasure.   10:45 already?  Damn, she knew the GPD had to be good in order to keep up with the crime in this city, but there was no way they were this good.

It had to be her luck, it just had to be.  She got unlucky and had to do the job on a night in which the cops were actually keeping proper office hours and staying on the alert.

Then, as if by some miracle, the light in the storage room went off.  Startled, she put the binoculars to her eyes again, just to confirm what she'd seen.  Yes, the lights were off.  She raised them slightly, in the direction of Gordon's office, adjusting the lens to zoom in a bit.  Nope, still there, discussing something or other with a young Asian woman.  What was her name?  Ah, yes.  Detective Ellen Yin, the first of the GPD to work with the Batman.  It could pose a problem if she was snooping about this late at night.

"Wraith, what's the status?" a voice crackled over the tiny speaker in the collar of her hoodie, making her jump.

"Would you shut up?" she hissed, gritting her teeth.  "The storage light just went out.  Gordon's still here but it looks like he's chewing out our favorite Asian."

"Ahh, Detective Yin.  Just be a little more patient, Wraith.  Wait until they've both left." the voice said soothingly, but she hissed at it again.

"Are you kidding me?  Now's the perfect chance.  While the heat's coming down on Yin, they'll both be distracted, and I should be able to get in there without drawing a whole lot of attention." she said, pocketing the minuscule binoculars and standing up.

"While I agree that's not a bad idea, I must say that you not drawing a lot of attention is a bit of a paradox.  You love attention, you make a show out of every job—"

"Sorry, but I think I'm getting some static over the radio.  Having trouble hearing you." Wraith interrupted, shaking the collar of her hoodie.

"Cute, Wraith," came the sarcastic quip.  "Just be careful."

"Sir, you know me.  I'm the _epitome_ of careful!" she insisted, grinning to herself.

A long-suffering sigh came from the radio.

"Right then," she said, "Prepare for loss of contact, I'm going in."

"Affirmative."

Wraith backed up several feet on the roof, and opened her wings.  Midnight blue with a 10-foot span, they still weren't strong enough for her to fly with, but they could allow her to glide for a few minutes.  Perfect for this job.  She flapped them once, twice, and nodded with satisfaction that she didn't have a feather out of place.  Then, she ran to the edge of the roof, and leapt, opening her wings fully at the height of her jump.  The wind wasn't strong, but the air currents kept her aloft, and she felt that exhilarating buoyancy in her chest, nearly forgetting herself once again in the joy of flying.  She flapped once, twice, three times, adding to her height despite the amount of energy it took to do so.  Slowly pumping her arms as though she were swimming, her glide carried her straight toward the police headquarters, heading right for the wall.  Grinning, she slowly brought her hands in front of her, manacle gleaming on her left wrist, the spiked wristband glinting on her right, and struck the two pieces together.

If she'd felt buoyant before, it was nothing like her feeling of weightlessness now.  She lost all sense of self, going into that state somewhere between waking and dreaming, like floating on a star-kissed river, and rather than crashing into the side of the building, she passed through it.  The stone and mason work felt cold on her essence, leaving her to guess that the air conditioning was on, but despite all the insulation in the walls, they were relatively easy to pass through, being so hollow.  When she came out, she was in a hallway, well-lit but empty of people, and she shook the feeling of the walls free of herself, glancing down at where her hand should be.

The essence of her wristband was still there, more solid than she was, still retaining its overall shape and image, but her hand curled into wispy tendrils unless she concentrated on her human shape.  She'd noticed lately, whenever she went insubstantial, that her essence was growing darker, and it seemed to be letting off smoky tendrils, like she was made of a particularly dark fog.  She was almost worried about it, but it added an overall more intimidating image to her name, and so she paid it little heed.

_Perhaps I'm simply becoming more twisted._ she thought with a wry smile, striding down the hall.  It took her several minutes and a handful of locked doors before she came to the right one.  "Storage" was emblazoned on the glass, and underneath, "Authorized Personnel Only."

"Sorry, boys.  But I'm not too big on following the rules." she chuckled, reaching out her hand and watching it pass through the wood.  Wood was always a bit harder to move through at first, because it seemed to contain a residual memory that it was once a tree in its grain.  However, gently pushing her essence allowed her through much quicker, and with hardly the blink of an eye, she was inside the room.  It was like a walk-in closet that someone had attempted to fit a storage unit in, so packed full of items as it was.

"Oh, lovely." she muttered.  "Could've mentioned the boys in blue love keeping souvenirs."

On almost every shelf, there sat an item with a label for just about every villain she could think of that the GPD had put away in BlackGate or Arkham, and even a few she'd never heard of.  The Joker, who'd left behind evidence at nearly each crime scene, had an entire shelf of his own.

"Busy man." Wraith remarked, recalling her own encounter with him and scowling, when she spotted a few sheets of paper on his shelf, labeled "Zai."  Curious, she reached for the papers, then remembering she wasn't solid, concentrated on her manacle and wristband.  With a resounding pop of displaced air, they were substantial again, and she focused on moving them toward each other.  They met, and she too was solid once more, sighing in exasperation as she picked up the drawings.  Casting about, she found a light switch dangling from the ceiling, pulled on it, and blinked as she looked at the drawings, trying to clear the light spots from her vision.

Whoever this Zai person was, they were a pretty good artist.  The first sketch was of Detective Yin and the Batman, both of whom looked as though they had suffered a rather gruesome and painful death.  The second was an incredibly life-like drawing of the Joker, which grinned at her madly, and she suppressed a shudder as she replaced the art on the shelf.

"Guess Zai is Joker's apprentice or something." she remarked, and looked around the shelves again.  Some of Penguin's umbrellas, a Ziploc bag of a couple of Catwoman's claws, a Riddler cube, a scale of Killer Croc's, photos of Mr. Freeze, a damaged helmet of Firefly's…

Ahhh, there it was!  Shoved off back in a far corner, hidden by all the clashing gimmicks and tech was a box full of stoppered vials, each containing a nasty-looking green liquid.  This then, had to be the condensed form of Joker's laughing gas, though it was odd the police would choose to separated it from the rest of his "collection."

"Well now, Joker.  I'm sure that since you're locked up in Arkham at the moment, you won't mind if I just appropriate a sample, would you?" she chuckled, her long, slender fingers closing around one of the vials.  Thankfully, it was made from a rather strong glass, and Wraith guessed that it wouldn't break unless she dropped it from the roof.  Still, it was best not to take chances, and that meant she had to find a way out of the place without ghosting.  Surely the essence of the gas would mingle with hers upon going insubstantial, and she didn't want to think of what would happen then.

She was just wrapping the tube of liquid Joker gas in one of her thick, titanium alloy-woven cloths, when the door to the storage room burst open.  A young woman, not too many years older than she, with long black hair up in a ponytail and intense dark eyes was pointing a gun at her.

"Police!  Freeze!" she shouted.

Wraith smiled, pocketing her cloth.  "Or else…you'll do what?" she asked innocently.

"Breaking and entering is against the law, and you're on the law's doorstep, miss!" Ellen Yin barked at her, glaring intensely.

Wraith rolled her eyes.  "Oh, and I suppose that means you expect me to come quietly.  Sorry, would love to stay and have a heart-to-heart girl talk, but I've got a job to do, myself."  And she unfurled her wings, catching Yin off guard.

"What the--?" Ellen gasped, lowering her gun by a fraction.  Wraith lunged forward, driving her elbow into the detective's chin, and ran.  The older woman went sprawling on the hall floor, and Wraith dashed down the hall, seeking the staircase.

"Detective Yin!  I need back up!" she heard Ellen scream into a police radio, "Suspect heading down the east hall on the fifth floor!"

At once alarms started blaring, the lights flashing red, and for the umpteenth time that night Wraith cursed her luck.  She found the staircase and wrenching the door to it opening, ran inside and started to climb.  The radio in her collar gave a squawk.

"Wraith, are those alarms?" came the casual question.

"You have no faith in me!" she answered, hearing shouts from below as the police spotted her running, and she ran faster, taking the steps two at a time.  Someone below her shouted and began shooting, bullets ricocheting in the stairwell, and she gave a cry as she climbed higher and higher.

"And let me guess," the voice crackled sarcastically over the little speaker, "That's _not_ gunfire."

"Your commentary is not helping my current situation!" she snapped, going up another flight of stairs.

"Oh, so it's _my_ fault you brought the entire police force down on your head?"

"NOT HELPING!!" she screamed, opening the door at the top of the stairwell leading onto the roof.

"She's heading onto the roof!  After her!" she heard Detective Yin shout from below, and panicking, she shut the door behind her, bolting the lock.

"Azhure?  Azhure, where are you?" Wraith called, looking around the roof.  A screech from the right far corner caught her attention, and she raced over, pulling the wrapped vial from her pocket.  A beautiful harpy eagle was perched on the roof corner, yellow eyes shining at her in the moonlight.

"Oh, Azhure, thank goodness.  See this?" she held up the vial, and the eagle cocked its head.  "I need you to take this to Erin's place.  You know Erin?" she asked, gently extending a wingtip until it brushed against the eagle's.  Azhure sent her the image of dark red curls, bright blue eyes, and a brilliant smile.  Wraith sighed in relief, nodding, and held out the vial in her palm.  The eagle cried, flapping its wings, and rose into the air gracefully.  It flew a circle around her once before swooping down and grasping the vial in its claws, taking off into the night.

"Done." Wraith sighed.

"Not quite." said a young female voice behind her, and she whipped around to see two silhouetted figures step into view.  "Funny, I thought Penguin was the only person around with a bird-watching hobby."

"What was in the cloth?" the taller figure growled, stepping closer.

"Ahhh, the Batman.  And who's this, your little cousin?" she purred, taking a step back.

"It's Batgirl," the teenager said indignantly.

"I'm not going to ask again.  What was in the cloth?"  said the Batman menacingly, striding toward her like a sleek jungle cat.

"Wraith, is that who I think it is?" came the amused question from her collar.

"Oh, shut up!" she snapped, clenching her fists, bringing them together.

"Wraith?" the Batman repeated, sounding curious.

"Gee, I thought a wraith was a ghost.  So where'd you get the name?" Batgirl taunted, running toward her, jumping in the air and whipping her leg around for a kick…only to fall right through her.  "What the--?"

"I am Wraith.  Both in name and…ha ha, spirit." she chuckled at her own bad joke, sneering at the teenager and bringing her manacle and wristband back together.  At once, the door slammed open and several cops swarmed onto the roof, pointing their guns at her.

"Damn my luck." Wraith muttered again.

"Don't let her get away, Batman!" Ellen Yin shouted, "She stole something from the storage room!"

"It's too late to retrieve that." Batman answered, "She's already sent it flying."

"Ahh, so you _did_ finish the job!" the speaker in her collar beeped, and everyone froze, listening.  "Well done, Wraith!  I had faith in you."

"Bullcrap." she spat.

"Wraith, a change of plans." the voice went on, suddenly adopting a cold, commanding tone.  "Kill the detective."

Her body went rigid and she looked at the figures before her.  Slowly, she reached into her other pocket, pulling the hilt out, and with the press of a button, her scythe snapped open, its blood-red triple blades shining wickedly in the moonlight.

"Your wish, sir," she said softly, reaching up and pulling the speaker from its hiding place in her collar, "is my command."

She crunched the little radio and dropped it, getting a grip on her scythe.

"Wait, don't do this—" the Batman started to say, but she was already running, and before he could do much else, Wraith's scythe glittered with ruby drops of Ellen Yin's blood as she fell, like one before the Grim Reaper on the night of his gruesome harvest.


	2. Beautiful Darkness

Three knocks at the door.  Zai sighed, preparing herself for the inevitable call of—

"All right, Zai, recreation time." Gabriel said, opening the door.

Wordlessly she stood and followed him.  She was still in the straightjacket, and thus, still angry.  This time she firmly decided she wasn't talking to Gabriel, at all.  Screw all of them; Gabriel, Dr. Strange, the orderlies, the asylum, all of them.  As she walked, she was dimly aware of Adrian, the female orderly, coming up alongside them, one of her own patients in tow.  Gabriel and Adrian began to discuss something or other, and Zai tuned them out until they reached the rec room, and were set loose.  She trudged over to her usual spot, seething, and within moments Joker was at her side, trying to vie for her attention again.

"Aww, what's the matter, Z-baby?  Not happy to see me?  You know how I feel about frowny-faces." he said, his voice starting in that innocent high pitch and slowly working its way to its more deep, menacing tones.

"Leave me alone." she muttered darkly, turning her head the other direction to ignore him, despite the fact it would probably only make him angry with her.

"Oh, really now!  I'm just trying to make friendly conversation.  After all, it's not my fault you're always so tight-lipped about everything!" he said, teasingly stroking the corner of her mouth, and she had to resist the urge to bite his finger.  She didn't need any more trouble from the freaking orderlies.

Just as her patience was reaching its limit, the door to the rec room opened again, and another orderly came in, a new inmate at his side.  Whereas there was always an underlying thread of tension in the rec room that ran between all the inmates and orderlies, suddenly it was as though it never was, like something physical being removed from the room, as all eyes turned to the newcomer.  Certainly there wasn't anything special about her.  She seemed to be roughly the same age as Zai, with shoulder-length hair the color of midnight, and dark green eyes set in a pale face.  For an instant's brief passing, Zai was jealous, jealous that this girl had perfectly matching green eyes.  If she had had eyes like that, then maybe her parents wouldn't have…Zai shook her head, trying to push the thought away.  She felt like drawing in her sketchbook again, and once more fury surged to the surface as she remembered how her sketchbook had been taken away.

"Ahh, are you Miss Pendragon then?" Adrian Davis said, clipboard in hand, walking right up to the girl, who nodded silently.  "Right, so welcome to the rec room, blah blah blah, try not to kill anyone."

The girl smiled warmly at Adrian, and Zai felt the urge to wipe it off her face.  How dare this new girl get so open with the orderlies!  How dare she be so confident!  Zai clenched her teeth, and the Joker drew his hand back from her, turning to follow what she was looking at.

"Don't get friendly with her, Adrian!" warned the orderly who'd escorted the new girl, "This one's highly dangerous!  God knows why we're even letting her have this time with the other inmates."

"Why, Jeremy," the girl said in a voice that sounded like it belonged to an older woman, a voice that sent Zai's mind, as well as Adrian's, to thoughts of something old and Celtic with its soft, yet powerful tones, "One may get the impression you don't like me."

"I'm not at liberty to—" the orderly started, but the girl called Pendragon cut him off again.

"Are you the discriminatory sort, Jer?  How depressing!  I'm afraid I may have to report that that makes me uncomfortable during my next session with my doctor." she said, a hidden threat buried beneath her sweet voice.  The orderly, nervous sweat rolling down his face, squared his shoulders and marched away.  The girl chuckled, and walked all the way into the rec room.  By now, the other inmates had all turned back to their own activities, but the lack of animosity in the air still hung over the place.  Zai shuddered, and Adrian rubbed the goosebumps that suddenly raised on her arm.  Something about this wasn't right.

"Hmph.  Another face fades into the mundane backwash of life." Joker commented in a bored tone, and Zai giggled a little, causing him to grin.  She almost continued giggling, until the new girl was right in front of her.  She pointed to the open chair next to Zai, a worn paperback in her other hand.

"That seat taken?" she asked, and Zai bit her lip.  She didn't like the girl, but when she looked around, all the other spots were taken.  She guessed she had no choice.

"No," she answered, hating her stupid tongue for telling the truth.

"Yes," Joker threw in, irritated, but he went largely ignored.

"May I?" the girl asked, and without waiting for an answer, she dropped into the seat and promptly opened the book, burying her nose deeply in it.  Zai glanced at it, shivering when she saw the metallic spider on the front cover.

"Anansi Boys?" she said, her voice dripping with revulsion as she took in the title.

"Mm-hmm.  Neil Gaiman's writing is pretty decent, even if he's not Poe or Lovecraft." the girl answered.

"Poo!  Who in the world wants to read anything as dreary as that?" Joker scoffed, "Come to think of it, who wants to read at all?  Come on, Zai.  Let's steal the chessboard from Pengy and ditch this drag."

"Humph.  And they say insanity is supposed to be a side effect from genius." the girl remarked, never looking up from her book.  Zai quickly turned to the Joker, who was glaring at the new inmate, obviously insulted, but she was surprised to see him frown in confusion.

"Say, don't I know you from somewhere?" he asked, and this time the girl did look up, green eyes half-lidded in boredom.

"You ought to, though if you forgot, it doesn't surprise me at all." she said coldly.

"Ahh, that's right!  Guenhivyre Pendragon!  Didn't we run into each other a couple of months ago at the Gotham Art Museum?" Joker asked, and Zai's urge to hurt this girl grew stronger.  She wasn't sure why, but Joker giving this newbie any of his attention pissed her off.

"I'm flattered," Guenhivyre Pendragon responded with dripping sarcasm, "And yes.  If I recall correctly, you tried to brain me with a replica Turkish scimitar."

"Oh, uhm...oops?" Joker offered, suddenly looking awkward and backing away a few feet, "What say we let bygones be bygones?  After all, we've got all this time here locked up in the loony bin to spend, we might as well be friends."

Then again, maybe this Guenhivyre wasn't so bad after all.  She turned those dark green eyes on the Joker, cold as ice.

"When I get out of here and get my scythe back," she said in a menacingly calm voice, "Heads are going to roll, starting with yours, if I'm not feeling generous at the time."

"Right," the Joker said, his smile back in place, even if his eyes were just a tad too wide open, "Zai, let's see about that chessboard, huh?"

They commandeered the chessboard, but had to still retreat back to their seats, as there were no other available tables.  However, the girl called Guenhivyre Pendragon didn't seem too inclined to pester them; for the most part, she kept her nose buried in _Anansi Boys_ as they played, though she occasionally looked up and glanced at the placement of their chess pieces.  And largely, this was how the recreation time went, until the call came for group therapy.

***

Adrian watched as the young woman strode boldly over and took a seat near Joker and Zai, cracking open a Neil Gaiman novel.  For an instant, she wondered where the girl got it and who'd let her bring it in, then decided she didn't want to know.

"Hey, isn't she the girl who attacked Detective Yin the other night?" Richards asked.

"You mean killed?" Jeremy muttered darkly.

Adrian felt her blood turn to ice.  They had to be messing with her, like usual.

"No, she didn't kill her," Gabriel spoke up, "Detective Yin may be in critical condition, but she's not dead, last I heard."

Oh, so the girl was only an _attempted_ murderer.   _Why, thanks boys,_ she thought wryly, _That makes me feel so much better.  
_  
"So why is she here, instead of in a prison cell at Blackgate?" she asked aloud, watching the younger woman flip peacefully through her battered paperback.  Odd, considering her a murderer when she seemed so calm and gentle.  But then, Adrian had come to learn she couldn't take any of the inmates at face value in this job.

"Split personality is what I've heard," said another orderly, "Apparently we're seeing the serene side right now, but her other self is the one who broke into police headquarters.  Calls herself Wraith."

_Wraith_.  An image from the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy came to her mind, of a tall, dark, hooded figure.

"UGH!!  I can't stand that creepy little bitch!" Jeremy groaned.  "She's messing with me!  I want to transfer before I go homicidal listening to her!"

"She can't be _that_ bad." Gabriel said, staring at Jeremy in shock.

"Says the guy who has ZAI as one of his inmates.  No, you haven't seen her in the middle of a switch." Jer growled, "Sweet one second, then telling me the different ways she'd like to torture me the next."

"She's barely been here a day!" Richards snorted.  "You a pansy, Jer?"

Jeremy didn't answer, but then, he didn't have to; the answer to that question was kind of a given.

Adrian was one of the escorts for the inmates as they headed to their therapy sessions, and this group was heading to a session with Dr. Strange.  Adrian shivered.  She didn't like Strange at all, and for more reasons than one, least of all being the guy was just plain creepy.  Not to mention she hated to think what he'd do if he ever had the opportunity to catch her acting…well…Well, she figured he'd just enjoy seeing her in the same room with Neil.  He was way too interested in the workings of the criminal mind than a psychiatrist ought to be, to the point where Adrian wondered if Hugo Strange himself might be—

She pushed the thought out of her mind and brought up the rear of the group, right behind Killer Croc—who wouldn't stop looking back every so often and winking at her—Zai, Joker, Penguin, and the new girl, the one Jeremy called Guenhivyre Pendragon.

_Even for some names I've heard, that one's just terrible.  What kind of person would be enough of a jerk to give their kid that name?_ she thought, then considered, _Probably one obsessed with Arthurian legends.  Then again, this supposed split-personality of hers calls itself Wraith.  Somehow, that seems just as bad as her given name.  
_  
Entering the room designated for group therapy, Adrian was preparing herself to bolt at the first possible opportunity, but Doctor Strange caught her eye.

"Ahhh, Miss Davis.  I trust there haven't been any problems lately?" he asked in that smooth way of his.  She could have sworn there were enough hidden implications in that one query that could fill a small book.

"Nothing too major, doctor." she answered evenly, taking care to coat her tone in sweet steel.  Strange raised an eyebrow.

"I see…" he said slowly.  Then he smiled, making her skin crawl.  "If you would be so kind as to remain within the room today, Miss Davis?"

"Wha—"

"Mister Levangie has requested that another orderly fill his position today.  Since you are doing so well and you happen to be here, I of course, see no reason why you cannot stay as the orderly to sit in on a session."

Damn it all, she was going to kill Jeremy if she ever got the opportunity!

Well maybe not _kill_ him.

But she _would_ taze him to her heart's content!  All she needed was to figure out some way to make it look like an accident.

"If you would all please take a seat?" Strange asked the inmates, and they each collapsed into a folding chair, save for Croc who, after having broken several chairs before, was content to lean against the wall nearby.  
"Before we begin, may I introduce Miss Pendragon?" Strange addressed the others, gesturing toward the girl, "She was just admitted the other night for…special reasons after nearly killing Detective Ellen Yin."

"You what?!" Zai spluttered, turning to the girl, looking stunned.  Guenhivyre Pendragon on the other hand, ducked her head and didn't look at anyone.

"Bah!" the Penguin squawked, "She didn't kill Yinny.  The detective may be dying, but she's not dead yet!"

"You seriously just about took out Batsy's main squeeze?  How?" Joker demanded, leaning in closer.

Guenhivyre Pendragon's head flopped lower, onto her chest as though she was falling asleep.

"Miss Pendragon?" Strange asked carefully, and a cold feeling began to build in Adrian's chest.  She had a feeling she knew what was happening.

The girl's head snapped up suddenly, and a malicious smile spread over her previously gentle face.  And when she spoke this time, she no longer sounded like a lovely, ageless woman, but had the rough alto of an angry female singer.

"Guen's a bit embarrassed.  Doesn't feel up to answering questions at the minute, the wuss.  But I'm always happy to spill some guts…one way or another." she answered with a throaty chuckle.

"Ah." Strange consulted something on his clipboard briefly before looking back up at the woman, a questioning look on his face.  "Then you are Wraith?"

"Speaking." she bared all of her teeth in a feral grin.

"Might I assume you shall remain with us for the duration of the session then, Miss Wraith?" he asked.

"Sure, why not?  Little Miss Goody-Two-Shoes ain't talkin'.  Might as well make some friends while I'm here." She glanced around at the inmates.  "'Sup, everyone?"

"Helloooooo, Wraith." they answered as though they were at an AA meeting.

"Say, little lady," Croc suddenly spoke up, surprising Adrian, "You wouldn't happen to be related to a guy, calls himself Incubus, wouldja?"

Wait, what?  Some new crazy who ran around _admitting_ he was a pervert?  Adrian was going to have to start double-checking all the locks on her apartment.

Guen—or Wraith, rather—whipped around, staring at Croc, and nodded slowly.

"Yeah," she answered, "He's my half-brother.  He disappeared sometime last month, and I haven't heard from him since.  Why?"

Croc looked around at the others, but before he could speak further, Dr. Strange coughed and the Penguin growled in irritation.

"Can we just get on with it?!" he snapped.

"My sentiments exactly," Strange threw in, and once everyone had quieted down, he glanced around the room, consulting his clipboard again with a pencil in hand before speaking.  "Today, we are going to discuss the things we find beautiful.  Preferably the people.  Mr. Cobblepot, why don't we start with you, considering how eager you are to get into today's session?"

Now that he was on the spot, the Penguin went rather pale.

"Erm, uh…me?  Well, uh…"

Adrian sighed, massaging her temples.   _This_ could take up the better half of the morning.

"Well, I uh," the Penguin stammered, "I think the twins are beautiful.  So there." He folded his arms, looking both relieved and pleased with himself.

"And why do you find the twins beautiful, Mr. Cobblepot?" Strange asked, writing something on his clipboard.

"Erm, well…I don't know!  They're just my type!" he blurted out, going red in the face.

"Perhaps you need some time to think on it.  Very well, we'll come back to you, Mr. Cobblepot.  What about you, Mr. Jones?" Strange turned to Croc, who looked at Adrian and grinned.  She shuddered in revulsion, trying not to think about him lunging to bite her head off.

"I think Miss Adrian here is beautiful."

For some God-forsaken reason, Adrian felt heat flood her cheeks, and desperately wished her tazer worked on the huge reptile-man.  As if it was bad enough he wanted to kill her, now he was teasing her to boot!

"And why do you find Miss Davis beautiful, Mr. Jones?" Dr. Strange asked, turning to Adrian as he spoke, like he was waiting to see if she would freak out, the sick man.

"Well, I'd say all that golden hair, the eyes, the lovely Southern accent, her sweet side _and_ her tough side…enough to make any man worth his gumbo get heartache."

"You're insinuating you're a man under all those scales, Croc?" Joker scoffed, and Killer Croc snarled, snapping his maw threateningly.

"Since you're always such an eager volunteer, Joker, perhaps you would like to go next?" Strange jumped in just in time, a bit more of an edge to his voice.

"Hmm, how about Zai?  After all, the kid's about as screw-loose as I am." the Joker purred, staring at her, and she fidgeted, her cheeks going pink.  For a moment, Adrian felt bad for the girl.  She knew her story from her file; all the orderlies did, and the Joker seemed to pick on her rather relentlessly if she wasn't giving him her undivided attention.

Still, Zai had tried to kill her on a few different occasions, so Adrian's empathy was short-lived.

"And you, Miss Zai?  Is there something you find beautiful?"

"No." the girl answered almost before the psychiatrist had finished speaking.

"Now, Zai," Hugo Strange said in a voice that showed his patience with her was still strained as always, "I'm sure all of us here find something beautiful.  We've all been sharing our thoughts with each other rather readily here, and I'm sure everyone would be interested in knowing what you find beautiful."

"Yeah, right." Zai grumbled, crossing her arms and glaring with her face cast away.

"Miss Zai…" Strange started in a warning tone.

"FINE!!  I find art beautiful."

"Art is not a person, Miss Zai."

"SO?!  You said you preferred we talk about people, not that we couldn't find something other than people beautiful." she snarled, glaring at him.  Much as she and Zai tended to clash, Adrian had to admit the girl had a point.  She seemed to be a master of finding loopholes in everything Dr. Strange said.

"Then are you saying there are no people in the world you find beautiful?" Strange needled her, and Zai's glare grew more poisonous, but she clamped her mouth shut.

"I wouldn't blame her if there aren't." Wraith abruptly spoke up, and all eyes turned to her.

"Miss Pendragon?" Strange asked, and when she looked away, her nose in the air, he amended himself.  "Ah, Miss Wraith?"

"I'm just saying," she said slowly, that deadly grin on her face, "That there really might not be any people in the world she finds beautiful, and frankly, if that's the case, I can't blame her." 

"And you are an expert on this how, Miss Wraith?" Strange asked, smiling back at her, steepling his fingers.  Wraith grinned wider, reaching her arms back over her shoulder, and Adrian's hand went to her tazer at her hip.  Was the girl about to strip in the middle of the session?  Even for some of the crazies here, that seemed a bit extreme.  But to her astonishment, Wraith ripped open the back of her uniform, and before Strange could protest, something emerged from the tears.  Adrian's gasp was out of her mouth before she could stop it, lost among the gasps from the inmates.

Wraith sighed, flexing her midnight-blue wings, stirring up tiny whirlwinds in the room that dissipated almost instantly.

"God, that feels SO much better."  She turned to Hugo Strange, baring her teeth again.  "Trust me, Dr. Strange.  I know plenty about how ugly the people in the world can be." 

"Wings?" the Penguin spluttered.  "Y-you have _wings_?"

"Knew it!" Killer Croc chuckled, "You _are_ his sister!"

Wraith smiled around at them all, nodding at Croc, and this time her expression was a tad less malicious, a bit more friendly.

Still did nothing to make Adrian feel better, but at the same time, her mind was racing.  Given the hint in what she'd said, Wraith's—Guen's—wings weren't a natural part of her.  Someone had put them there, deliberately.  
What had she gone through?

"Are they…?" Zai asked, leaning forward like she wanted to reach out and stroke the feathers but knew better.

"Uh-huh." Wraith said, flexing them again.

Strange, recovering quickly and not one to let anything be denied him, cleared his throat again.  "And you, Miss Wraith?  If you feel that the world lacks so greatly in beautiful people, is there anything you _do_ find beautiful?  I've heard that you were supposedly speaking to someone identified as your employer the other night at police headquarters.  Would you happen to find, say, your employer a beautiful person?"

Wraith threw her head back and laughed, a hysteric, heartless maniac's cackle.

"My employer, Dr. Strange?  Yes, I was talking to that person, but no, I don't find them beautiful.  How could I?  That's the entire reason I have my wings." she said, trying to suppress an evil-sounding giggle, and a hush fell over the group before she went on, "No, doctor.  You want to know what I find beautiful?  I find darkness beautiful.  Pure, consuming, binding, lethal darkness.  It lives in all people, waiting to be cultivated and fed by all of our poisons, then finally unleashed to run free within our minds, twisting us beyond the point of recognition, to such a degree we can no longer walk freely among our sun-dwelling cousins.  My name, Wraith, means 'twisted', and so I am.  Sweet little Miss Pendragon tried to suppress all of her darkness for the longest time, thinking she could fight it, and then finally, I became strong enough I was able to break through the barrier.  Now we sit here before you, not completely separate but not completely whole, either, with her hiding shyly in the corner of her mind from the shame she feels at what she lets me do, retreating from the darkness that feeds me."

"I see…" Strange murmured, his pencil flying over his clipboard the whole time.

"You, Dr. Strange," Wraith purred abruptly, shooting up out of her chair, and leaning in close to him to the point their noses almost touched, shocking everyone, "You are more twisted than the rest of us, ya sick freak.  Yeah, we're all a little warped by our own darkness, but yours!  Yours practically radiates off your aura like a black halo, there's so much of it!  I feed off darkness, Dr. Strange.  Not just mine, but others' too.  And yours!  Yours could keep me nourished for a _very long time_.  Watch your back, doctor, because I'm going to be lying in wait.  If you don't give me that darkness of yours willingly, I'm going to have to take it from you.  And the hungrier I get when I wait, the bloodier my harvest is going to be."

"If that is a threat, Wraith—"

"Not a threat, doctor." She said, pulling back suddenly and dropping back into her chair, a mild expression on her face.  "A promise."

A shudder ran down Adrian's spine and she nearly sobbed with relief when Strange dismissed the group therapy.  Oddly enough, she almost swore she saw the psychiatrist shiver as well, but it must have been her imagination.  Yes, she was disturbed by Wraith's little speech, so her mind must have decided it would be funny to play a trick on her.


	3. A Frantic Exit

Her head felt light and dizzy, and when she finally opened her eyes, the world was blurry and spinning a bit.  She groaned, trying to lift a hand to her throbbing skull, but her arms felt so heavy.

"Yin?  Yin, are you awake?" a voice asked, and she blinked hard to pull the world around her into focus.

"W-wha—"

"Yin, can you hear me?" the voice went on, and she tried to nod, the motion sending white lances of sore pain shooting through her head.

"Wh-where…am…I?" she finally managed to ask as her vision started to clear.  A familiar young man was sitting near her, looking at her with a face full of concern, but she couldn't remember who he was.  An older man, his red hair graying and glasses sliding down his nose, was leaning over the edge of a bed.

She was in a bed?  But why?!  She should be out, patrolling the streets or—

Trying to sit up caused her chest to burn as though on fire, and she fell back with a cry.

"Don't move, detective!" Gordon said sharply, coming over and placing a fatherly hand on her shoulder.  "You could rip out the stitches."

"Stitches?" she repeated, confused.

"For the past couple of days you've been incapacitated here at the hospital." said the young man by her side.  "You, uh, took a nasty cut to the chest, what with that girl's scythe having three blades and all."

Now she remembered.  The girl called Wraith, who'd broken into headquarters and stolen something from the Evidence Room!  She'd cut her…

"You were slashed up pretty nasty." said another cop at the foot of the bed.  "You've been out this whole time while the doctors have been working around the clock.  That scythe just missed your heart chambers."

"You—you lost a l-lot of blood, Yin.  We thought you were dead…" the man next to her murmured.  Now she recognized him.  Tankinson!  He looked so different without his sunglasses on…

"Wh-what happened to the thief?"  Ellen asked, looking up at Gordon, whose grim face warped into a scowl.

"Locked away in Arkham.  Seems she's got a split personality, like the Ventriloquist." he said darkly.

"And…the stolen evidence…?"

"Still trying to figure out what it is she took.  The bat's going to come back tonight and look for us.  Maybe he'll notice something we missed."

Yin sighed in relief, nodding.  That was good.  Batman would figure it out, and then they'd recover the stuff.  "Good.  Then we can get to the bottom of this mess."

"Actually, detective…" the commissioner said in a regretful voice, "I'm afraid that won't be happening."

"What?  Why?"

"You may still be alive, but you've taken more damage than you could imagine.  Several veins and arteries, a heart valve, and your right kidney…they've all been shredded beyond help…You've had to have them replaced with new tech from Wayne Enterprises, but you're not the bionic woman or anything.  Nor are you even fit for active duty; if something were to go wrong on the field, you could die in an instant.  I'm sorry, Yin.  I'm so sorry this happened.  But if you wish to remain with Gotham PD, you're going to have to transfer to a desk job."

"What…?" she gasped, her stomach twisting in cold knots.  She had machines inside of her to keep her alive?  No longer fit for active duty?  A desk job?  Tears began to build behind her eyes, and she fought to keep them at bay.  "Y-yes…Commissioner.  I'm sorry I failed you."

Jim looked close to tears himself.  "No, detective.  I'm sorry we failed _you_.  I would love to have you return to the squad, but I can't afford to have you die on me for real this time.  You're a great cop, Ellen, and an asset to the force.  But I don't want to put you in danger like this again.  I'm sorry."

He left from the room, the other cop at his heels, while Cash Tankinson still sat next to her.

"I-I'm…I'm sorry, Yin." he said quietly.

She had no idea what he was apologizing for, but she didn't care.  Using what little strength she had, Ellen Yin reached out and hugged her one-time-partner, seeking comfort and human compassion as she began to sob uncontrollably.

***

Sadie Curio was walked into recreation time, the orderlies behind her in a pissy mood, and she made a mental note to memorize their names.  They'd pay for those shoves they were giving her.  Once in the room, her eyes sought out the one person in the room worth talking to.

"Zai!" she called, and the girl's head shot up.

"Sadie!" she called back, her eyes sparkling as her expression brightened.  "You're back from solitary!"

"And kicking!  What's up?" she asked the younger girl, coming over and sitting on the table her friend was drawing at.  Joker wasn't around this time, which she considered odd, but she appreciated the chance to talk to her friend without the clown around, trying to manipulate them both when they weren't looking.

"Not much." Zai said, closing her sketchbook out of habit.  Zai never let anyone watch her draw over her shoulder, and rarely showed anyone her art.  "Just the new girl."

"New girl?" Curiosity repeated, puzzled.  She hadn't heard of any new arrivals at Arkham, and she was sure the guards who kept watch on her while she was in solitary confinement would have at least mentioned something about it amongst themselves.

Zai pointed toward the ceiling, and when Curiosity looked up, she saw a pair of legs dangling off one of the rafters, kicking back and forth idly.

"What the—?" she started.

"You'll see." Zai answered with a nod.  "Just give the orderlies a couple more minutes to notice she's 'missing.'"

Puzzled, Curiosity continued to watch the feet kick until she heard a shout.

"Oy!  Where's the ghost girl?" one of the orderlies yelled.

Ghost girl?  Now Curiosity was _really_ curious.

"A ghost?!" one of the inmates gasped, ducking under a table in fear.

"Hey, Johnson!" the first orderly yelled again.  "The ghost chick is missing."

"I'm not missing." said a voice from above.  "You're just not using your god-forsaken eyes well enough."  It sounded irritated, and had a rough quality to it, like some angry woman from a screamo band.  The orderly who'd been shouting came over near their table, glaring up at the ceiling.

"Get down from there, missy, or so help me, God—"

"Whatcha gonna do, Jer?  Throw your baton at me?  I never would've guessed you were on your high school drill team." the voice said, and Curiosity and Zai both stifled a snicker.  Jeremy Levangie glared daggers up at the rafters, his face going bright red.

"Get down from there, Pendragon, or I'm calling for backup." he snarled.

"And how are _they_ going to help you get me?" the woman taunted him, "What, are you going to stack yourselves on top of one another like a barrel of monkeys?  Don't tell me you were the only guy on the cheerleading squad too!"

This time Curiosity didn't bother to suppress her laughter, and even Zai giggled out loud.  Jeremy glared at them.

"Knock it off!  It's not funny." he snapped.

"Oh, leave them alone, Jer.  Don't be bitter just because they have a sense of humor and you don't." the woman said in irritation.  "Besides, if you want me to come down, why don't you use that little brain of yours and figure out how to do it without anyone getting a bloody nose?"

Curiosity had a feeling she knew what the girl wanted, and going on a whim, she called up to her.  "Hey!  Could you _please_ come down here?  I wanna say thanks for making me laugh!"

Immediately the feet withdrew.  "Well, since you said _please_ …" she sounded amused.  The next second, something dropped from the rafters right onto the table next to her.  It was a girl, just a little younger than her, a little older than Zai, with pale skin and dark hair that fell to her shoulders.  She had green eyes a few shades darker than Sadie's own, and she was grinning mischieviously.

And she had _wings._

From the back of her gray Arkham uniform sprouted two large, midnight-blue feathered wings, which she quickly folded against her back as she crouched on the table.  The way she was hunched over, she didn't give Curiosity the impression of an angel or a bird, but rather an overgrown, feathery gargoyle.

"Then it would be rude of me to say no." she finished, before turning to glare at Jeremy.  "Thank God.  I was beginning to think this place was completely devoid of manners."

"That's not funny, Pendragon!" the orderly shouted, "You do it again, I'm seeing you to solitary confinement, personally!"

"Name's not Pendragon, stupid." the girl hissed, "You want her, you wait until she 'wakes up.'  Till then, call me by my proper name or I'm going to slice you open, cut out your liver, and shove it down that big old mouth of yours.  Do I make myself very clear?"

Jeremy Levangie gulped, glared at her one last time, turned on his heel, and stomped off to sit by the other orderlies, his expression thunderous.

"Nice one," Curiosity whistled, "You better watch out though.  He'll backstab you first chance he gets."

"He does, and I'll have his head on a plate in seconds," the girl said casually.  "You're a new face."

"Likewise, but I'm not really new.  I just got out of solitary.  And, you are?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Call me Wraith." she answered, grinning in a friendly way. Curiosity chuckled to herself.  Well, it certainly wasn't every day that Arkham got someone so open for her to talk to.  She didn't trust her, not yet anyway, and a lot of that was thanks to how sociable Wraith was being, but she seemed okay.

"Curiosity." she said, grinning back, displaying all of her sharp teeth.  "And the quiet one is Zai, by the way."

"We met in group therapy." Zai spoke up suddenly, glancing up from her sketchbook.  She looked rather embarrassed and ashamed, like she wasn't supposed to have mentioned that detail.

"Oh.  I see." Curiosity said, slightly taken aback.  Why hadn't Zai mentioned that before?  Wraith snorted.

"Group therapy's a joke.  Someone ought to rename it, 'Strange's-time-to-get-high-off-criminal-analysis' or some shit like that." she muttered, folding her arms, still crouching like a gargoyle.  Curiosity laughed.

"Or, 'Strange's happy time'?" she suggested.

"PFFT!  You implying he gets off to analyzing the group in group therapy?" Wraith cackled, clutching her sides in laughter.  Curiosity roared, pounding her fist on the table, and even Zai hid a giggle behind her hand.

"Man, I bet he does, the creep!" Curiosity howled.

"Oh lord, that's so sick!" Wraith snorted, snickering.

"You're hilarious!  Why the hell are you here, anyway?" Curiosity chuckled, and Wraith sobered a little, wiping a happy tear from her eye and shrugging.

"Nearly offed a cop, some chick named Yin or Yang or Yo-yo or something.  But we're complicated, Miss Pendragon and I. So we were put here instead of at Blackgate."

"Whoa whoa whoa!  Did you say Yin?  You killed THE Yin, of GPD?"

"Almost," Wraith said with a scowl.  "Damn bitch won't die.  In fact, I just recently heard she's pulling through the surgery."  Her scowl deepened and she added darkly, "Boss is _not_ going to be happy when I get back to him."

Curiosity stared at her quietly.  Was Wraith implying she had a split personality?  If she did, it would make sense they sent her here instead; after all, that's what they'd done with Arnold Wesker, the Ventriloquist.  But had she really almost killed Detective Yin?  Not that Curiosity felt sorry for the woman; the cop had been a thorn in her side from the start, and it had been the same way for Zai.  But this newbie, almost kill Yin?  She glanced at Zai, hoping her friend would catch the question in her gaze.  Zai glanced at her, understood, and nodded confirmation.

_Well now,_ she thought in amusement, _Maybe it's not such a bad idea to make friends with her after all._  
  
"Your boss, huh?" she asked casually, and Wraith nodded, looking thunderous.

"He told me to kill the detective.  I did what he asked, so it's not my fault if the woman's too damn stubborn to die, but I'm still going to get grilled like hell about it anyway." she muttered angrily.

"What, he doesn't like failure?  News flash to your boss," Sadie said, waving her hands like they were blinking neon lights, "No one ever likes it when the employees fail.  But it happens, so you ought to get over it.  Everyone fails, and it's not like getting on your case about it is going to help."  She snorted angrily.  People could be so stupid sometimes.  But then, like she always said, karma was a bitch.

Wraith looked at her, raising an eyebrow.  "Try telling that to him sometime." she laughed wryly.  "Far as he's concerned, failure from me isn't an option."  She shuddered, staring down at the wood of the table, her wings ruffling.  "I don't want to know how he plans to reward failure…"

"Then screw it, I _will_ tell him!" Curiosity snapped, really annoyed now.  "Sounds like this boss of yours needs to be taken down a notch."

Wraith looked at her, an odd expression on her face.

"You mean that?"

"Well, duh!"

"So…let's say that I've got some friends planning to bust me out of here tonight.  This is completely hypothetical, of course." Wraith said casually, with a pointed glance in the direction of the orderlies.  A smile found its way onto Curiosity's face, and even Zai looked up in interest.

"Sure.  Go on." Curiosity said, and Wraith grinned again.

"Well, should my friends—hypothetically—bust me out of this house of hell and lunacy, would you like to come along?  Both of you?" she looked at Zai, who jumped and hid behind her sketchbook.  "It gets boring at the boss's place, and even the girls can't stay long most of the time.  They've got their own…work to deal with.  And like you said," she smiled smugly at Curiosity, "Boss could use a few criticisms here and there."

"Any reason why _you_ can't give him trouble?" Curiosity demanded.  If the girl was so keen on raising a little hell for her employer, why didn't she do it herself?

A dark look passed over Wraith's face.  "That's…complicated."

"Don't tell me you're in love with him." Curiosity snorted, her opinion of Wraith teetering on a cliff edge.

"I'd sooner go skinny-dipping in a deep fryer!" Wraith threw her head back laughing, then sobered up again, still smiling wolfishly.  "No.  Like I said, it's complicated.  Come with me, and you'll see what I'm talking about."

Curiosity was intrigued now, and if the look on Zai's face was anything to go by, so was her friend.  She smiled and held out her hand for a shake.

"You know something, I'll take you up on that, newbie.  Now when exactly is this hypothetical escape going to happen?"

"Some time after dinner…if it were really happening," Wraith said innocently, shaking hands with her, "You'll know when you hear the gunfire.  Hope you're not afraid of ghosts."

"What, you kidding?"

"Nope," she said, "And I hope you know where your guys' stuff is kept here.  I'm not leaving without my effects, which we would only get one chance to grab.  So if you want your stuff, you're going to have to get it and get it fast."

Abruptly she hopped off the table, and looked at them both as though trying to keep a straight face.

"See you later tonight, ladies." she said, giving them a mock bow, and flounced off to the other end of the rec room, where she sat down and started talking to another inmate.  Curiosity and Zai watched her a moment longer, then slowly turned and faced one another.

"Well?" Curiosity asked.

"I…I don't know, Sadie.  I'm not so sure we should trust her.  She even made Dr. Strange shudder, and that was after one therapy session.  And how do we even know these 'friends' of hers would let us come along?  How do we even know there's going to be a breakout and she's not just leading us on?" she said, frowning.

"Well, where's the fun in life without a little risk or two?" Curiosity asked with a smile, then she leaned in and whispered, "And if she is lying, I'm sure one of us can see to it my knife meets her back."

Zai gave her a rare smile.

"Fair enough."

***

Adrian was just coming back down the hallway, the last of her rounds for delivering supper over, and her nerves were racked.  Neil was right down that same hallway, and though she hadn't had to serve him his food, she'd still had to pass his cell, see him looking out at her.

"Hello, Addy…" he'd murmured.  "Pity you're looking well.  But that can be forgiven.  It'll almost be better that you're in perfect shape when I break you."

She'd shuddered and gone right past him without a word, delivering meals to the other detainees.  On her way back, she refused to look at him, but merely sped up her walk, even though she caught him still watching him out of the corner of her eye.

"Are you ignoring me, little sis?  That's not polite.  I'm going to have to draw your death out some more for being rude…"

The second she got past his door, she broke into a run until she was out of the hall, then slowed to a stop and composed herself.  She couldn't afford to have any of the doctors—especially Hugo Strange—see her get so worked up at what Neil was saying to her.  One of them could easily declare her unfit for duty, and then she'd be out of a job before you could say 'Louisiana.'

She was passing Johnson in the hall, who just finished delivering a meal to Killer Croc— _better him than me_ , she thought—when the alarm began to wail, the red lights flashing as the Asylum's security system went nuts.

"What's going on?!" She shouted.

"No clue!" Johnson answered.

It wasn't a drill; Arkham never had drills, out of respect to the patients who were caused distress by the alarm system.  Someone had broken out…or in.  Adrian was praying it was neither, that the security system was acting up because the Chief of Security had been messing with it, or that some small rodent had chewed through some wires somewhere.  Just as she was praying to every god she could think of that this was the case, guns began firing in the hall.

"INTRUDER!!" a guard shouted from one of the upper levels.

"Hell…" Adrian muttered, and more shots were fired off, accompanied this time by a high, keening wail that made her hair stand on end.

"LOOK OUT!" Johnson shouted, ducking as a bullet went whizzing where his head had been only seconds ago.  Another shot was fired, and Adrian dropped to the floor with a scream.  She heard something break, and a door crashed open.

"DAVIS!!" roared a Cajun accent.

"Oh NO!" she gasped.

"DAVIS!!" Killer Croc shouted, and his running footsteps started to shake the floor.  Adrian scrambled to her feet and began to run…

***

Two guards down, three more running, and the orderlies going in circles like chickens with their heads cut off.  So far, so good.  Azhure shot in front of Banshee, letting out an eerie cry as she sought out Guen.  Banshee raced after the eagle, trusting her hunter's instincts.

"Come on, Mags!" Banshee shouted over her shoulder, skidding as she rounded a corner.

"Keep your tea cozy on, I'm comin'!" the thief shouted back at her irritably.

They charged down the hall, Banshee holding her twin Uzi's before her in warning, and the orderlies were smart enough to get out of the way.  The guards?  She went through an entire clip before they grew some brains.  
Azhure came to a halt before a cell door numbered 318, and screeched, circling in front of it.  Banshee jammed another clip in each gun as she approached the cell.

"Guen!" she shouted, "You hear me, girl?"

A pair of green eyes appeared in the barred cell door window.

"Loud and clear!  Magpie with you?"

"Right here, love!" the pink-haired English girl yelled, coming to a halt right next to Banshee.

"Stand back, Guen, and cover your ears!" Banshee shouted, aiming for the door's lock.

"Wait!" Guen said, not moving.  "There are two girls, Zai and Sadie!  Next two cells over from mine!  They're coming with us!"

"YOU NUTS?!" screamed Banshee.

"No time to explain, sister!" Guen shouted back.  "Mags, I need you to raid the storage, grab the effects!"

"On it, mate!" Magpie said with a salute before taking off.

"This had better be good, or he's gonna maim us all!" Banshee said, firing at the lock until it broke open.  She threw the door open, just managing to catch Wraith's tackle-hug.

"Thanks, hon!" she said, "I promise I'll make it up to you!"

"Holding you to that!" Banshee chuckled, taking aim at the doors of cells 319 and 320.  The doors swung open once the locks broke, and two girls stepped out.  One seemed pretty normal, with her long dark hair covering one eye.  The other had green hair that was just a bit shorter, and her teeth were filed down to points.  Banshee wondered what in the hell Wraith had done to drag them into this, but she didn't have time to wonder for long.  Two more guards came running at them from both ends of the hall…

***

Zai stepped out warily when the lock on the door broke open, and saw Curiosity emerge from her own cell, looking surprised.  Wraith was already there, with a mocha-skinned girl dressed in skinny jeans and a pinstriped shirt wielding a pair of Uzi's.  She glanced up and down the hall, trying not to scream when she saw the guards rushing at them.

"SHIT!  DUCK!" the mocha-skinned girl roared, spinning on the spot into a crouch, her Uzi's whipping out to the sides as she fired off several shots into each of the guards.  Curiosity pulled Zai back just in time, and then they were off running before the guards hit the ground.  Zai really didn't like the sudden physical contact, but the situation was chaotic, and she didn't really get a chance to voice it.  Wraith was dragging both she and Sadie along by the hands as she ran, and the other girl was right behind them, holding her guns at the ready.

"Where to?" Wraith called over her shoulder.

"Bottom floor, south side!  Erin's waiting in the van!" the girl shouted back.

"Got it!" Wraith yelled, suddenly stopping next to one of the overhanging catwalks.  She pulled both girls up next to her, seizing their collars.  "Hope the Arkham diet's been working out for you two.  I can only hold so much weight!  At least we're only on the third floor…"

Zai was puzzled for a second, then realized what Wraith was talking about.

"What?!  No!  No way!  I'm NOT jumping off—"

"You wanna stick around and play pool with the guards?" Wraith asked, "No?  Didn't think so!  Hold on tight!"  And they surged into the air and over the railing as she snapped her wings open, starting to plummet.  Sadie cackled with glee, but Zai could only scream as the floor rushed up to meet them.  Wraith beat her wings hard, slowing their descent, and they hit the ground lightly, as though they'd done no more than jump off one of the rec room tables.  Zai's heart was hammering like crazy, and she was fighting back tears, almost screaming again as Banshee suddenly dropped out of nowhere next to them, hissing and whipping out her Uzi's again.  More guards were on this floor, and charging toward them, but Banshee stood first, spinning on the spot as she emptied the Uzi's, a loud, haunting wail ripping out of her throat as she fired.

"RUN!" she screamed, and they were on their feet again, racing for the door.  Another figure came up beside them, a girl about their age in all black, her hair dyed a bright pink, and she had her arms full of something…

"IS THAT MY DRESS?!" Zai screamed.

"Nice to meet you too, mate." the girl said in a rough English accent as they reached the door.

"DUCK!" they heard Banshee shout somewhere behind them again, and they all dropped into a kneeling position as bullets flew overhead, breaking the south side door.  Wraith was up and running, slamming into it sidelong before stumbling out of Arkham and down the steps.  Curiosity rushed out after her, grabbing Zai's arm despite her protests, and they were out!

"ERIN!" Wraith yelled, and a pair of headlights snapped on somewhere nearby, nearly blinding them.  A huge black van roared to life, coming to a screeching halt in front of them, and Zai saw a redheaded young woman poke her head out of the driver's side window.

"In the back!" she yelled, "Hurry!"

"You heard the ginger!" Wraith said, wrenching the back doors of the van open.  "Come on, in in in in IN!"

They didn't have to be told twice.  Zai jumped in the back of the van, Curiosity at her side, Wraith jumping in behind them, followed by the pink-haired thief, who pulled the doors shut.  Zai noticed the inside structure of the van was remarkably like the Mystery Machine off of Scooby-Doo, and half-wondered if the name was printed on the other side of the van.

The passenger side door opened, and Banshee tumbled in, screaming, "FLOOR IT, RED!"

The van shot off, sending the girls in the back bouncing and hitting the sides, making Zai snarl in pain.

But at least it was the victorious kind of pain.  The pain that said they were out of Arkham at last.

The girl driving, Erin, seemed to have no concept of driving, (not that Zai thought she could do any better,) and ran down the man at the gates right before they opened.  They sped down the bridge that separated the island from the rest of Gotham, and took off down the streets, the van weaving between the rest of traffic, and onto a street that was hidden by an overpass just as the police units began swarming the Arkham bridge.

"Erin, the next time you rescue me, I'M doing the driving!" Wraith yelled, rubbing her head where it had bumped against the van.

"You know you could be a little more grateful!  I'm risking life and limb here to save your sorry ass!" the redhead snapped back as they pulled onto another side street Zai hadn't noticed.

"I love you too, Erin." Wraith muttered.

Her heartbeat finally starting to return to normal, Zai sighed and sat down on a tarp, feeling relief.

"Hey…" she said, feeling something move under her, "This is a very lumpy…"

"OW!" a somewhat Southern yelp came from under the tarp, "Get off me!"

Eyes widening, Zai jumped up, bouncing a few feet, and pulled the tarp back to reveal Adrian Davis, the female orderly staring up at them in wide-eyed horror.

What the hell was _she_ doing here?

"What the—OH, SHIT!" Wraith screamed when she saw Adrian, who started to reach toward her pocket.  Zai remembered the blonde woman had recently bought a tazer, and thinking quickly, balled up both hands into a fist and brought it down on Adrian's head, knocking her out cold.  Strangely, it felt extremely invigorating.

"Oh, man!  Another hitchhiker?" Banshee groaned, looking into the backseat.

"Nice one, Zai!" Sadie said appreciatively, throwing her friend a grin.  Zai smiled back, feeling suddenly better about this whole ordeal.

"You know, he's not going to be happy that we've got the Sister Act going on here." Magpie suddenly remarked, sliding the boxes of their things away from her.  Zai caught her own box, hugging her sketchbook and clothes to her chest.

"Oh, man," Wraith groaned, burying her face in her hands as she let her box of belongings slide right past her.  "He's gonna _kill_ me!"


	4. A Bargain With A Sadist

Neil Davis was pacing silently up and down his cell, lost in thought, when there was an insistent knocking on the door.  The window cover slid open, to reveal a pair of eyes hidden behind reflective glasses, set in a grim face.

"Mr. Davis."

"Doctor Strange." Neil said politely, halting far away from the door.

"I came to see how you were doing.  I do apologize if the alarms, ah, upset you."

Neil didn't respond.

"I thought it might interest you to know that some of your fellow inmates escaped." Strange said pointedly, only receiving a shrug in return.  He paused for a moment, then added, "They took your sister with them, it seems."

"My sister is dead, Doc." Neil answered firmly.  "The woman everyone presumes is her is a demon."

"Be that as it may," Strange responded with an indulgent nod, "The…demon was taken.  I assume you'll start eating again now?"

"Maybe." Neil said in a non-committal manner.  For some reason, this made the doctor smile.

"This is good to hear, Mr. Davis.  On that note, enjoy your lunch."  And the grate slid shut.

***

Some time later, in a cell far removed from Neil Davis's, the Joker was also pacing back and forth, up and down, as he moved about in a fury.  Starting the day off talking to Doctor Strange was never a good thing.  Couldn't he wait till that blasted 'group therapy' of his?  And the news that Zai and Curiosity had escaped with some new inmate…Joker wasn't sure whether he wanted to strangle them both or pat them on the back and ask them how they did it.

Whatever it was involved guns.  He knew that much, same as any of the other inmates.  He'd heard the shots fired nearby.  Uzis, he'd deduced.

"Say, you're unusually quiet today, Joker.  What are you up to?" came the question from the cell next door.  It sounded a bit too polite and friendly, like the speaker was straining to be civil.

"Why the same thing you're up to, Pengy!" Joker answered brightly, "99 bottles of Joker serum in the cell."

"Oh lord," Penguin squawked in the tones of one resigned to the chopping block, "Not that again!"

"99 bottles of serum in the cell, 99 bottles of serum…" Joker sang, bouncing around the padded walls for emphasis.  This proved to be a bit of a challenge in a straitjacket, but somehow it got easier the more he worked at it.

"Yeah, just one short of brain damage." Penguin grumbled.

"You smash one down, smiles spread around!  98 bottles of serum!"

"All right, settle down, Joker!" said a new voice, "It's lunchtime."

The door to his cell opened, revealing a young man with a buzz cut, a bored expression, and a surfer's overplayed accent.  Joker leered at him, remembering when he'd first broken into Arkham and put a smile on the kid's face.

"Feh-lunky," he said, starting in a high pitch and working his way to his lower, threatening tone, "I do hope you've been going to Dr. Strange and giving him my complaints about our diet.  Too much stinking macaroni…"

The orderly sighed, "Yes, Joker.  I made sure to tell him…again."

"So why is there still macaroni on the plate?" Joker demanded angrily, making him take a step back.  The orderly had no clue Joker was already having a bad day, but he knew better than to get to close when he started talking half-sane.

"Knock it off, Joker." said another orderly, stepping inside the cell.  Joker glared at him, wishing he was out of the straitjacket so he could snap Gabe's neck.

"Or you'll do what…flunky?" he growled.

"Just eat." Gabriel sighed, as the first orderly set the plate of macaroni and cheese on the floor and backed out.  Gabe too, started to back out.

"Gabriel." Joker said his name in a deadly voice, and he stopped, partially because he was stunned he even knew his name.  "She's never going to be yours."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Gabe answered coldly.

"Oh, but my dear archangel," Joker said in a mocking, honey-coated tone, "I think you do."  After all, the fear in those bright blue eyes spoke loud and clear, belying his brave face.  Gabriel's face hardened and he slammed the door shut with a resounding clang, making Joker smile.  He'd won that one.  The blonde idiot was just making it too easy.  Then he scowled.

That flunky had been after Zai the second he saw Joker with her.  Joker had threatened him repeatedly, tricked Zai to try to turn her against him, had the kid beaten to half an inch within his life…and he was STILL stupid enough to not give up.  Ha!  And they thought he, Joker, was the one that should be in the cell?  THAT was laughable.

He sat brooding and steaming for a few more minutes, when Penguin suddenly squawked again in his cell.  "Wh-what is this?  You maniacs trying to kill me?!"  There followed a spitting noise and a small clink, and Penguin suddenly went, "Oooooh.  Seems someone's losing their keys…"

Joker stared blankly at the wall separating them for a moment, then kicked over his plate of macaroni and cheese and spread the contents on the cell floor.  For a moment, it only squished, then there was a small scratching sound.  Something metal was sliding across the concrete floor!  He kicked the plate over, and there is was: a cell key, hidden among the pasta.  He could only stare for a moment, and then he grinned widely, his smile touching his ears.

"Well now…" he said, highly amused, "Perhaps I'm not gonna use your head for a bowling ball yet, Strange."

The sounds of his mirth filled the asylum, making all who heard it shudder.  All save one man, sitting in his office at his desk, fingers steepled.

A smile came over his face.

***

"We there yet?" Wraith asked darkly.

"Almost," the redhead called Erin answered from the front seat.  "The tunnel should be coming up soon."

They'd spent the entire night and most of the second day driving around, leading the police on a wild chase until they finally lost the trail.  Now, it seemed, they were finally heading to wherever it was they were supposed to be going.

"Where exactly are we going?" Curiosity asked, raising an eyebrow at Wraith.

"…It's difficult to explain," she answered, "It used to be my father's place, long time ago.  Now it's the boss's place, where he conducts all of his work."

"Shouldn't it technically be your place?" Curiosity asked.

"If you really want to get into the technicality of it," Wraith snorted, "It's supposed to belong to my older half-brother.  But he's…busy, and he doesn't like the house.  And according to the old man's will, if my brother gives it up, I don't inherit it until I turn twenty-one."

"And when's that?"

"In another two years.  I'm not sure I want it either, though…Think I just might let him keep it." she said, poking at her box of effects boredly.

Curiosity thought this a rather dumb course of action, but she said nothing, and silence held the van in its grip for a few more minutes.

"Hey, the tunnel's coming up." Erin remarked.

"Right, everyone!  Hold your breath!" Wraith said, and Curiosity and Zai looked at her funny.

"What, are you superstitious?" Curiosity snorted.

"No!  Boss keeps a hallucinogen pumping through the tunnel!  You've got to hold your breath until we come out of it!" Wraith said, reaching over and pinching the nose of the unconscious Adrian, while Magpie covered her mouth.  "Unless of course, you want to be living out your nightmares for a week!"

They didn't need to be told twice.  Right before they saw the mouth of the tunnel swallow them, they took deep breaths, and held.  The lights dimmed considerably, flashing orange-yellow outside, and the sounds of the tunnel walls roared all around them.  The van cut through a strange, misty haze, and the air grew stiflingly hot.  Then, just as they thought their lungs would burst, the tunnel fell away, and they were traveling on a countryside road.  They all exhaled at the same time, shuddering, and realized that Adrian had jerked awake, squirming.  Magpie released her mouth, Wraith her nose.

"What in the—"

"I'd hold my tongue for the time being, if I were you."  Wraith remarked casually.

Adrian struggled, trying to reach her tazer, only flopping around like a fish out of water.

"Ah, yes.  We had to tie your hands and feet while you were asleep.  Nasty toy, that tazer of yours.  Couldn't risk you going trigger-happy." Magpie threw in.  Adrian glared at them all in turn, her gaze finally coming to rest on Curiosity and Zai.

"You are going to be in SO much trouble when we get back to Arkham!" she promised them.

"Assuming you can undo those ropes, escape a booby-trapped mansion, subdue us all, and keep us that way until the cops arrive." Banshee said with a yawn from the front seat, polishing an Uzi none-too-subtly.  "Anyone wanna take bets?  I say 10-90 she pulls it off."

Adrian went silent, still fuming.

"We're here." Erin said abruptly, and they all looked out the windshield as the van began to climb up a hill.  Massive pine trees lined the sides of the gravel driveway, obscuring their view, and they pulled up to a giant gate, a length of chain and padlock holding it in place.

"Key?" Erin asked, Wraith already fishing through her box of belongings.  She pulled out a small object as Erin put the van in park and tossed it, the redhead catching the key and hopping out of the van to go unlock the gate.  There was a distant clinking sound, a thud, and a loud creak like nails on a chalkboard, and the gate gently swung in as Erin got back in the van.  She tossed the key back to Wraith and pulled on through until they got to a large parking lot in front of a huge Gothic mansion.

"Whoa!" was all the three newcomers could say.

"What?  You act like it's big or something." Magpie said with a  snicker, fist-bumping Banshee.  Erin parked the van and turned it off, pressing a button that popped the back doors open.

"Got the gate." Wraith called in bored tones, jumping out through the doors and taking off down the path they'd come.  Adrian flopped around again, until Banshee appeared in the frame of the back doors, putting new clips in her guns.

"Well, you just gonna stare, or are we going inside?" she asked.

"Call dibs on disabling the alarm system!" Magpie crowed, shooting out of the back.

"I don't think anyone's going to fight you for that one, hon!" Erin called after her, appearing in the doorway as well, untying the ropes around Adrian's ankles.

"Are you crazy?!" Curiosity shrieked.

"Leave her tied!" Zai threw in, backing away, clutching her box as though afraid Adrian would take it from her.

"Oh, we'll tie her up again if she causes trouble." Banshee said in a way that gave no one any doubts she'd see it through.  Adrian, for her part, was red-faced, furious, and terrified, but she remained silent, and accepted Erin's help in getting out of the van.  Wraith came charging back up to them, swiping her box from the back of the van.

"You guys coming or what?" she asked Curiosity and Zai.  The two girls looked at each other, unsure of what they should do, but neither saw much other choice.  Still, why hadn't Wraith or one of the other girls told them about the house?  Something fishy was going on…

Curiosity jumped out first, her box under her arm, and Zai reluctantly followed, still with an iron grip on her clothes and sketchbook.  Magpie was standing at the door already, fiddling with a keypad.  She worked at it for a couple of seconds more before it lit up in bright green and let out a chirp.

"Getting easier and easier every time," she remarked.

"You know, you could always just put in the passcode." Wraith sighed at her.

"It's more fun this way." Magpie said with a shrug, pushing the door open to reveal a long hallway.  Adrian scowled at it.

"Great.  I've had nightmares about this before."

"Really?  Then what are we sitting around here waiting for?!" Curiosity said, suddenly excited, and she shoved Adrian forward.  Magpie and Banshee went right after them, a bit less speedy.  Zai fidgeted nervously, and Erin swept past her with a "hmph" and flounce of her red curls.

"It's okay.  The house isn't going to bite you, you know." Wraith said, watching Zai.  She jumped and inched toward the door, then paused.

"A-aren't you going inside?" she asked.

"I've got to bring up the rear," Wraith answered, "I'm the only one that can reset the boss's alarm system."

Zai frowned at her, still suspicious, but she stepped inside and started down the hallway.  The door shut behind them, darkness flooding their vision for a brief second, and then lights in the hall ceiling snapped on, nearly blinding her.  There was an ominous chirp behind her, and she jumped, only to see Wraith brushing non-existent dust from her arms.

"What's wrong?" she asked, but Zai only shook her head, following the hallway.  She wouldn't admit it, except to possibly Sadie, but there was something about this house that made her feel caged.  They followed the hallway, catching up to the others, and doors to other rooms started to appear, nearly all of them closed.

"What are all these places?" Curiosity asked when she tried a door and found it locked.

"Linen closets, weapons rooms, laundry chutes, combat simulation, offices, living rooms, and the poisons room." Wraith rattled off.  Curiosity, Zai, and Adrian all gave her a searching look, hoping she was joking.  But there was no wink, no sudden grin and giggling, no "April Fools" at all.

"You're serious." Adrian croaked.

"There's also the kitchen." Erin remarked, still walking ahead of them.

"Yes, but that has an archway, not a door." Magpie threw in.

Zai slowly turned and gave Curiosity a look that said, "What have you gotten us into now?!"  They kept following the hall, until they heard a low growl, stopping all of them dead in their tracks.  Wraith stepped forward, dropped into a crouch, and clicked her tongue several times, snapping her fingers.

"Rosie!  Rosie, girl!  Come here!" she called in a sweet voice.  There was an answering whine, and a blur shot out of nowhere, pinning her to the ground with a fit of barking and a lot of licking.  Curiosity and Zai jumped back, and Adrian moved like she was trying to, but she almost stumbled.

It was a husky, waist-height and white, with a black leather collar around its neck, and bright blue eyes.

"Rosie, g-get off, you big goof!" Wraith sputtered, and the husky barked again, licking her face.

"Meet Rôssamund, by the way." Banshee, Magpie, and Erin all said at the same time.

"Rôssamund?" Adrian asked.

"For her coloration." Erin pointed out, and now that they looked closer, they could see the husky wasn't completely white.  Where most huskies would have black or gray cloaking their fur on top, Rosie had a slightly reddish-pink tinge.

"Rosie!  Bad girl!" Wraith scolded, and immediately the dog got off her, sat back on her haunches, and laid her ears flat, whimpering.  "Stay…Shake!"  The dog's ears lifted a little, and she extended a forepaw, which Wraith shook gently.  "Good girl!  Friends, Rosie." She pointed at the others each in turn, and the husky tilted her head to the side.  "You can pet her if you like.  She just gets excited when new people come in."

"Umm…no thanks." Zai said, taking a step back.

"Pass." Curiosity said, and the husky's ears drooped again as she whined.

"Oh, you big attention whore." Banshee grumbled, crouching down to scratch the dog's ears.

"Aww, don't be like that!" Erin jumped in, petting Rôssamund.  "Rosie's attention-deprived!"

Adrian snorted, clearly thinking this whole thing was ridiculous.

"Rôssamund!" a voice suddenly called, and dog stood completely rigid, ears pricking forward.  "Come here."

The husky turned around and charged down the hall.

"Yeah, he's not happy." Wraith muttered.  "Oh well, time to face the music."

Curiosity and Zai looked at each other.  The voice they'd heard hadn't been shouting, and it didn't have any particular qualities to it that seemed threatening.  Maybe Wraith could hear something they couldn't?  Either way, they reluctantly followed the rest of the girls, Wraith in the lead, charging after the dog, who led them straight to an arched doorway.

The kitchen was large, luxurious, and modern with a  sleek feel.  There was an island in its center, a long, wraparound counter against two walls, a fridge twice the size of most, and a metallic round table and matching chairs.  Rosie trotted into the kitchen, then slowed to practically a crawl, dragging her belly on the floor, her ears laying back as she approached a man, glowering with crossed arms.  He was nearly as tall as Edward Nygma and thin, though nowhere near as thin as the Riddler.  He wore a long white lab coat over a blue sweater and dark slacks, which gave him a sort of no-nonsense air.  His skin was pale, his nose hooked, his black hair done in a bowl cut (which almost made Curiosity snicker) and there were dark circles under his brown eyes, like he'd not gotten a lot of sleep.

"Rôssamund, you are the worst guard dog in the world." he grumbled, and the husky sat up, wagging her tail, tongue lolling.  The man rolled his eyes and groaned.  "The news of which doesn't phase you in the least, does it?"

"Leave her alone!  You know Rosie's not a mean dog!" Wraith said suddenly, rushing forward and dropping down, wrapping her arms around the dog.

"And you," the man said in a bored voice, "Are late."

"Got held up." Wraith muttered.

"You call being arrested and sent to Arkham Asylum as getting 'held up?'  I think you need to reassess your priorities, Wraith."

Now that they were in the kitchen with him, Curiosity and Zai nearly fell over laughing.   _This_ was Wraith's boss?  The guy was an uber-nerd with an uber-nerd haircut and uber-nerd fashion sense!  Even his voice wasn't threatening; it fact, Zai thought it was almost soothing, it was so gentle.

But apparently, the other girls didn't think he was something to be trifled with.  They kept their distance from him, standing as far away as possible while still being in the kitchen.

"Also," the man said, boiling water for tea as though newcomers in the mansion were a typical occurrence, "Not only did you fail to follow my orders, but you brought home more strays.  What is this, the Anti-Nancy Drew club or something?"

"They're my friends!" Wraith snapped, standing back up, her wings ruffling.  The guy glanced at Curiosity and Zai, then back at her, and quirked an eyebrow.

"Uh-huh, sure.  Where'd you meet, arts and crafts time?  Or lunch?  You start some food fight or something?"

Wraith scowled at him, her hands curling into fists.

"And her?" he asked, nodding at Adrian.  "Why do you have an orderly with you?"

"Thi-this is all a big mistake!" Adrian suddenly said to him, as though hoping the man could be rational.  "L-look, I was kidnapped by these maniacs, and brought here!  I had nothing to do with this!"

"Why are you defending yourself to me, Adrian?" the man asked, frowning at her.  "I'm not the police."

The orderly froze.  "…How did you know my name?"

"Gee," the man said sarcastically, "Couldn't be the name tag on your uniform." She relaxed, going pink in the face.

"And what do you mean, I didn't follow your orders?" Wraith shouted at the man, clearly not ready to be ignored for long.  "You said, kill the detective, so I did!  Not my fault Yin's too stubborn to die!"

"Is that really what I said?" the man said, looking genuinely surprised.  "No wonder!  You've always been a master at exploiting loopholes.  I suppose I should apologize; I'd meant for you to kill Batman."

"Oh, great!  NOW you tell me!"  Wraith screamed, throwing her arms up in the air.  "I went to the crazy house for nothing!  I could've gotten off easy if I was just stealing the chemical but _NOOOOO_!  You had to make me kill somebody, go to Arkham, break out, and come back here, only to find I DIDN'T SWING AT THE RIGHT BODY?!  Why don't you grow the other freaking half of your brain and alert Ripley's when it happens?"

The room went silent, and the quiet was so tangible, Curiosity wondered if she could cut right through it with her knife.

"You know," the man remarked, his voice going so cold they almost felt the room's temperature drop, "I'm getting a little fed up with that mouth of yours, Wraith."  He reached into the folds of his lab coat.  "Failure must be punished, come to think of it."

"Well, I'm getting a little fed up with that _face_ of yours, Milo!" she snapped back.

"Milo?" the three echoed, Curiosity throwing Zai a look, and the man looked at them, raising an eyebrow.

"Professor Achilles Milo.  At your service." he said frostily, with the barest of nods, and Zai looked at Curiosity, snickering.  Even his name was uber-nerdy!  They burst out laughing.  Wraith was afraid of this guy?!  Even with the creepy quality of his angry voice, he was a total sissy-boy!  They howled with laughter, his skeptical frown only adding to their giggle-fits…

And then he withdrew the syringe from his coat.

Curiosity's eyes found the needle and her laughter died as her body went rigid, beginning to shake.

"WHOA!  What the hell?" Banshee jumped back.

"Hey, put that away!  Miss Curio is aichmophobic!  She's terrified of needles!"  Adrian said firmly once she saw what was occurring.

But it seemed that Professor Achilles Milo wasn't too keen on that course of action.  Wraith forgotten, he turned to them, eyes locking onto the green-haired girl, and a horrendous, cruel smile spread over his features.

"Is that so?" he said softly.  "How very interesting."

"Y-you stay away from Sadie, you creeper!  It's not funny!" Zai spoke up, falling silent when he looked at her.  His attention didn't stay on Zai for long, and his smile grew a little wider.

"As I was saying, Wraith," he said very softly, taking slow, deliberate steps their way, "There's always a price for failure.  How do you think your new friend would react to an injection of say, silver nitrate?"

Zai automatically took a step back, pulling Sadie with her, because she was paralyzed from the fear.  Adrian stepped back with them, looking frightened, but she thrust her chin forward determinedly.

"You can get arrested for that you know—" she started.

"Hey, ask me if I care." Professor Milo shot back casually, taking out a stoppered test tube filled with….something, and he began to fill the syringe.

"Milo, this isn't funny—" Erin Knightly said in a warning tone.

"It's hilarious from where I'm standing." He said in a bored voice.

"Leave Sadie alone!" Zai yelled at him, as Curiosity trembled violently.

"H-h-hate…needles…" she whimpered, and suddenly Wraith was in front of her, opening her wings as she dropped into a fighting stance.

"Cut it out, Milo!" she snarled, "Leave her alone!"

Professor Achilles Milo just shook his head, clicking his tongue.  "Wide open.  Your sympathy always leaves you wide open."  And before they could react, he seized the front of Wraith's Arkham uniform and drove the needle into her neck, depressing the plunger.  Her eyes went wide, and when he withdrew the syringe, she collapsed to her knees, shaking, choking, her wings folding tightly against her back.  Curiosity relaxed a fraction when the threat of the needle was gone, but she and the others could only look on in horror as the winged girl threw her head back in a silent scream.

"Easy now, it'll all be over soon." Milo said in a soothing voice, though it was anyone's guess who the hell he was talking to.  Wraith curled up into a ball on the floor, whimpering, her blue feathers rippling as though in a breeze, and gradually her trembling slowed.

"There.  All better." Milo said, leaning against a counter and crossing his arms.

Even before she looked up, everyone could feel the tension in the room evaporate.

"That…was not necessary." Wraith said, but her voice was different now, lovely and ageless.  Curiosity watched, stunned, and Zai tugged on her friend's arm.

"Her other personality!  I forgot to tell you!" she whispered.

"Guenhivyre." Achilles Milo murmured the name, as though he could caress it by speaking it out loud.

"Who else would it be?" Guen answered, standing upright and holding her chin high.  "You put Wraith to sleep."

"Wraith is lucky she gave the mission enough forethought to ask your eagle to deliver the package to Miss Knightly here," Milo said, quickly and quietly, "Otherwise you'd both be in trouble for her mistakes."

"Don't bandy about with me, Milo." Guenhivyre said, placing her hands on her hips.  Curiosity was stunned.  She really was a different person!  But would Sadie like her?

"Whatever do you mean, Guenhivyre?" Milo asked innocently, a friendly smile on his face.

"You want to get rid of Azhure.  You believe that Wraith and I rely on her too much." Guen said.

"What?" Erin gasped, looking between the two.  "Milo, surely you wouldn't kill Azhure?!  I thought you still needed her!"

"Guenhivyre has not needed any injections of the eagle's cells for two years now." Milo said coldly.  "What's the point of keeping the bird?"

The room went silent.

"Then let Erin take the bird." Guen said abruptly.  "She's friends with Oswald Cobblepot."

"The Penguin?" Milo snorted.

"He would take care of Azhure.  After all, he's got quite the aviary.  I'm sure he'd appreciate the addition of a rare blue female harpy eagle." Guen said quickly, folding her arms, still holding her chin high.  Milo gripped the collar of her uniform, glaring at her intently.

"Rather fast thinking on your feet there, Miss Pendragon.  Or did you have some 'inside' help?" he growled.

"You belittle me, Achilles Milo," she said coolly, "I'm not as naïve as Wraith.  I knew you'd be looking for a means of punishment, and I knew Azhure was the most likely candidate you'd choose.  The loss of the eagle would hit Wraith hard, and would provide you with the most sadistic amusement, we both know that.  But there's no reason to just go killing a rare species."

The scientist's knuckles went white as he gripped the collar tighter, but his voice remained calm and deadly.  "Sometimes I think you're a bit too smart for your own good."

"Are you going to kill me, Milo?" she asked softly.  For a moment they stood, glaring daggers at each other, and then he flung her away from him.

"Go to the combat simulation room!" he snarled.  "You're out of practice if you can't even kill one lousy detective."

Guenhivyre smirked and bowed at him.  "Your wish sir, is my command." She strode from the room, head held high, and the animosity began to creep back into the air.

"Man, you are so lucky I don't shoot your face in, right here, right now!" Banshee snarled.

"Do it anyway," Curiosity growled, taking the man apart with her eyes.

"I wouldn't recommend that." Magpie and Erin said at the same time.

"Wise thing, too." Milo said, perusing through cabinets and picking out a mug.

"How can you just treat people this way?" Adrian demanded, finding herself furious with the guy.

"Very easily." He answered, pouring himself a cup of tea.  "Thank you for volunteering, by the way."

"W-what?" Adrian stammered, taking a few steps back.

His cold dark eyes locked onto her.

"There's always a price to pay for interfering with my work." he said in that frightening angry voice again.  "Those three—" he waved toward Banshee, Erin, and Magpie, "Have paid it before.  You three are new here, and so a sacrifice has to be made if you wish to stay here.  The protection this house can offer comes at a price, you know."

"Wh-what are you—"

"Simply putting things, Miss Adrian—can I call you that?  Miss Adrian—you three have a choice to make: either one of you new faces sacrifices herself willingly to be my test subject, or the three of you can all be sent back to Arkham, shot up with my hallucinogens.  It's entirely up to you what you do, but the clock is ticking and you have a choice to make.  One of you takes a hit for the group, or all three of you get the hammer." He said simply, staring at them like a cat.

Dread closed over the three like a fist, and their hearts pounded.  Adrian's mind was racing, and before she could really consider the consequences, she knew what the course of action was.  She had no other choice, because she knew if she protested, the girls would back her into doing it anyway.

"Okay, okay!" she sighed.  "I'll…I'll do it."

And Milo smiled.

"I knew you'd see it my way.  So tell me…" he pulled two stoppered vials from his coat, containing red liquids, "How do you like the idea of having scales?"


	5. A Gift From The Heavens

Chief Angel Rojas stood before the Commissioner's desk, waiting patiently for a response.  Gordon just had to understand the course of action, he just had to!  The theft of Joker's chemical and the attack on Yin had left him shaken, just like the rest of Gotham PD, but not for long.  When they received word that the criminal responsible for the attack broke out of Arkham, taking a few other inmates with her, Rojas knew exactly what needed to be done.  The crazy ghost bitch needed to be hunted down and brought to justice, preferably the kind ending in lethal injection.  All Rojas needed was the nod from Gordon to take a tactical squad to the streets of Gotham and track her down.

"I'm afraid I can't help you here, Rojas."

"What?" he gasped, stunned.  Had Gordon really just said that?!

"While I commend the idea, this is just the wrong way to go about the matter.  We're not out to get revenge for Yin, and the girl in question is criminally insane.  You can't treat her like she's some wild animal.  And while I agree that she needs to be found and taken in, I…question your methods of retrieval and interrogation." Gordon said firmly, pushing the folder on his desk back toward the cop.  "I'm denying your request for a tactical squad."

"Y-you can't be serious!" Angel Rojas said in horror, clenching his fists at his sides.  "Sir, I—"

"You," Gordon's tone went frosty, "Are going to stay put and drop this idea, Rojas.  And if you pursue the matter or it begins to affect your performance at your job, I'll not only demote you, but I'll put you in for a transfer."

A demotion _and_ a transfer out of Gotham?!  This was insane!  Gordon was supposed to understand!

"Do I make myself clear?" the Commissioner said angrily, and Rojas worked his jaw a moment before answering.

"Yes…sir." he growled.

"Dismissed." 

Rojas stomped from the room, his face going red with fury.  Gordon had no concept of what he'd just done.  The only way to deal with these freaks was to put them through court with an unforgiving judge and jury who sentenced them all to death row.  Gordon may coddle and rub shoulders with the Batman, but Rojas wasn't so easily swayed.  No, he'd had enough of the freaks, and this new one everyone was calling the Ghostly Lady or whatever was the icing on the cake.  He'd been pissed when he found out Yin was working with Batman behind his back and the Commissioner approved of it, but she'd still been the best detective on his team after the fall of Ethan Bennett.  And now, she was lying in the hospital, just pulling out of a brush with death.  Personally, Angel Rojas thought she brought it on herself, going too soft on the weirdo who'd hurt her, but she'd still been part of his squad, and there was nothing that aggravated him more than one of his cops getting injured when he could have prevented it.

Well, scratch that.  There were some things that aggravated him more.

"Chief Rojas, sir!" one of the cops addressed him as he walked past.  "Sir!  Is there anything I could assist you with, sir?"

He paused and thought, still furious, and an idea began to form itself in his head.

"Yeah.  I want you to get me a list of the names of all the criminals who've escaped from Arkham Asylum in the last 24 hours, pronto!" he snapped, and the man nodded, dashing off to do so.

Screw the Commissioner.  Rojas was going to bring these crazies down, once and for all!

Even if it meant going solo.

***

"Scales…Why scales?" Adrian whimpered as the girls followed Milo into one of the lab rooms.

"Reptilian DNA is particularly interesting to work with, and I've yet to have a  female test subject willing to grow a lizard tail." Milo answered evasively, giving them a noncommittal shrug.

Curiosity, though no fan of Adrian, had to admit she was feeling kind of sorry for the woman, and wished she had her knife at hand.  Milo's back, like the rest of him, was rather thin, but he was tall, and that lab jacket would look so much better with a splash of red.

"That's not an answer, nerd-boy." Banshee growled, bringing up the rear.

"It's the only one I'm going to give you at the moment, take it or leave it." he shot back opening the door to a room.  They stepped into a room definitely set up like a lab, tables, test tubes, beakers and chemicals everywhere.  One side of the room had a wall comprised mostly of a window, which looked into another room, a computer and control board set up beneath it.  They saw it and paused, looking at the window.  The other side of the window showed vegetation that looked like it belonged in a jungle.

"What's in that room?" Adrian asked warily.

"Ah.  That would be the combat simulation room next door." Professor Milo answered, turning to watch.  Within moments, Guen came into view, warily trudging the underbrush, just staying to the right of a path that was out in the open.  Behind her, further in the trees, just barely visible, a vague shape was moving.

"Oooh, look out, Guen!" Erin Knightly squeaked, chewing her nails nervously.

"Would you relax?" Milo groaned at her.

The shape leaped, reach out toward the brunette girl, who ducked at the last second, and it went sprawling, rolling head over heels.  It was a man, dressed in camo, and he whipped out a machine gun, beginning to fire.  Guen sprang upward, swinging herself up into one of the trees, and began tree-hopping all over the place, making her opponent waste his ammo, firing at a moving target.

"OOOH!  She could get hit!" Adrian said, forgetting her own impending doom at the sight of the gunner.  Milo approached the window, pressing his hands against the glass, a hungry look on his face.

"Yes," he said, "That's the beauty of it.  The danger of the combat simulation room is quite real, and though it may not kill her, Guenhivyre could definitely end up with fractured or broken limbs."

"What?!  Then why—"

"Because," Milo cut her off, "She won't.  She never does."

At that second, Guen dropped from the tree, just as the hologram of the gunman ran out of ammunition, and drove her elbow into its face.  The man went flying backward, and she charged after him, the scenery shifting around them, as she leapt into the air and curled into a ball, landing on top of him.  They skidded in the dirt of the fake jungle floor, and Guen stood on his chest, snapping open her scythe, the blood-red triple blades ringing, and rammed the butt end of the staff against the man's throat.

"You see?" Milo asked.  "Perfection.  Computer!  Combatant read out."

"Reading," the computer answered in a monotonous drone, "Heart rate increase by five percent.  Peak oxygen levels within normal range.  Body temperature at 98.8 degrees."

"Only five percent!" Milo hissed, the corners of his mouth turning up in an evil leer.  "No other specimen has ever been so at ease during combat simulation.  She's exquisite!"

"Ugh, you sound like she's a shell or something for you to collect!" Zai groaned in disgust.

"Not quite," Milo purred, not taking his eyes off Guen as she ordered the computer into a different simulation program.  He watched for a few seconds more, then turned away, approaching one of his lab tables and removing a test tube from a rack, containing a strange, violet liquid.

"Wh-what is that?" Adrian asked, trying to worm out of the ropes still binding her wrists.  Whoever had tied these had done a damn good job, because she couldn't them loose.

"It's a compound called T-99, and the brainchild of my predecessor, Dr. Emile Dorian.  It's capable of altering human genetic structure, allowing for adaptation of outside cells or DNA to the composition of the entire human body.  In the layman's terms, one of the most powerful mutagens ever created."  Milo said in a feverish way, as though explaining how spiritual ecstasy felt.

"So that's how…" Curiosity murmured, her eyes flicking back to the window, where they could see Guen tussling with a group of street thugs.  The odds didn't seem to be in her favor, and she herself must have noticed, because she sprang up again, landing on a windowsill a few stories above them, and hung there, balancing herself with her wings as she rattled off another order to the computer.

"Precisely." Milo said, following Curiosity's gaze, that smile still on his face.  She decided she hadn't liked him before, when he threatened her with that needle, and she definitely didn't like the way he was looking at her newest friend.  She hadn't known Wraith too long, and she still had yet to get acquainted with the other personality, Guenhivyre, but the look in this scientist's eye was…creepy, for lack of a better word.

Zai it seemed, was thinking along the same lines, as she too, followed Curiosity's gaze, then noticed Milo and glared at him, the effect made more menacing by the hair covering her right eye.  Personally, she thought that this guy had some kind of…thing for the winged girl, and it gave her the shivers.  He looked like an obsessed and deadly stalker.

Even Adrian seemed to notice, but she didn't catch on immediately.  She interpreted it as the man being a sick sadist who loved to play God with his human lab rats, and dreaded to think what he had in store for her.

"You are sick as hell, Milo." Banshee snapped, crossing her arms.

"Flattery will get you nowhere, Akira." he said simply, taking one of the red vials from his coat again and staring at it intently.  He held it up toward them, frowning, and tilted his head, like he was trying to imagine Adrian with four arms or something.  "Hmm, no." He set it down and pulled out the other vial, repeating the process, and this time he smiled again.  "Ahh, yes.  That'll work."

Adrian half-expected him to mix the two, but instead he took the vial of red liquid over to a side cabinet, setting it inside where no one could see.  He shut the door, twisted the handle on it until there was the tiniest of clicks, and came back over to them, still holding the test tube of T-99.

"Now, we can do this one of two ways.  Either you can drink the compound, or I can inject it.  My guess is that you want to cause Miss Sadie the least amount of distress, given your earlier performance." he said, extending the hand with the test tube in it, then chuckling.  "Oh yes, my bad.  I forgot Vanessa tied you up.  Come to think of it, where did that rotten little English thief get to?"

"Mags had to leave.  Said something came up with her boss." Banshee snapped.

"Oh, my.  Injection it is, then!" Milo said cheerfully, like he'd been planning this all along.  Curiosity however, wasn't about to let him get away with it.  She'd had enough needles for one day.

"Zai, hold her!" she snapped, and the dark haired girl sprang into action, seizing Adrian from behind, throwing one arm around her neck and pushing the opposite elbow into her back.  Curiosity snatched the test tube, and before anyone could quite register what was happening, forced the contents down Adrian's throat.

"Well, that's one way to do it!" Milo chuckled, putting his hands in his pockets and looking thoroughly amused.  Adrian began to wobble and sway, and Zai let go of her neck as she struggled to keep from swooning on the spot.

"What's going on here?" a voice demanded, and that feeling of peaceful complacency settled over the room again as Guen walked in, eyes widening as she took in the scene before her.

"Oh, you just missed it," Milo answered, "Miss Adrian here has agreed to be my test subject.  She's just had her first dosage of T-99."

"What?!" Guen cried, rushing past Banshee and Erin to steady Adrian with a hand on her shoulder.  "Please, tell me he's making a bad joke!"

Adrian, who was focusing on staying upright and lucid, could only shake her head.

"Guenhivyre, you know me.  How often do I make bad jokes?" Milo rolled his eyes, and she rounded on him, clenching her fists at her sides.

"How could you?!  She had nothing to do with this!"

"A price had to be paid," he replied coolly, his evil smile coming back, "Would you rather I force one of your two new friends into it?  No?  Didn't think so.  Besides, anyone could see that they would have made the orderly into a sacrifice, had she not chosen to do so of her own free will."

"He's right," Zai said grudgingly, crossing her arms.

Guen turned to look at Adrian, tears starting to well up in her eyes.  "I am so, so sorry, Miss Davis!"

Adrian only shook her head again, swaying, and Banshee rushed over to keep her upright.

"Don't worry about her right now, sis." the mocha-skinned girl said gently.  "I'll take her to one of the spare rooms, see if she can't get some sleep until it wears off."  And she wrapped one of Adrian's shoulders around her arms, half-carrying, half-dragging her from the room.

"Don't see what you're so worried about.  After all, you've seen how the compound works," Milo was muttering darkly, "Everyone reacts to the first dose of T-99 that way."

"You still shouldn't have required a new lab rat just because Wraith made some new friends." Guenhivyre said coldly, watching as the gunner and the orderly disappeared from the room.  Milo's eyes narrowed, and he suddenly looked up at Erin, Curiosity and Zai.

"If you three wouldn't mind," he said in that hair-raising angry voice, "Guenhivyre and I have something to discuss."

"I don't like that attitude of yours, poindexter." Curiosity growled, taking care to expose all of her teeth.

"Why should we just leave her alone with you?" Zai added, curling her hands into fists and preparing to spring at him.

"I'll be fine," Guen said soothingly, and again they felt the animosity just leave them.  "He's no threat to me."

Milo's face darkened, and they were almost ready to argue with Guen's logic, but instead they found themselves walking from the room, Erin following right behind them, shutting the door.  Almost the second they were out, they heard their new friend and the scientist begin to argue in low, angry tones.

"You sure we shouldn't go back in there?" Curiosity asked, not moving.

"You heard Guen.  She can handle herself." Zai said, though she seemed somewhat nervous.

"Oh, they'll be fine!" Erin Knightly huffed.  "Achilles may not like Wraith, but he's got a soft spot for Guen.  He won't do much more than yell at her if he's really angry."

"Umm, hello!" Curiosity scoffed at her.  "You seen the way he just stares at her?  It's like a starving dog looking at raw steak just in biting range!"

Erin turned and regarded her a little coolly.

"I know he lends himself to the whole 'creepy' thing you guys are talking about.  He can't exactly help it.  But I also have known the two of them longer, and I know Guen's going to be fine."  she declared loftily.

"Because that FILLS me with confidence!" Curiosity snapped.

"I still don't trust him!" Zai added firmly, glaring at Erin.

"Hey," Erin said, turning to really look at them for the first time, "Aren't you two the girls who Joker used in his scheme around Christmas time when he tried to infect all of Gotham with his Joker snow?"

"Used us?" Zai snapped, "Yeah, he used us!  Kidnapped us, turned us against each other, almost killed poor Curiosity here in the process!  What's it to you?"

"So YOU TWO are the ones responsible for nearly killing poor Ozzy!" Erin gasped, looking rather scandalized.

"Ozzy?  Who the hell is Ozzy?" Curiosity asked, really getting annoyed now.

"Oswald Cobblepot," Erin answered impatiently, "The Penguin!"

"We did NOT kill him!  And it's Joker's fault he was there in the first place!  Besides, he was teaching Pengy a lesson for picking on me!" Zai snapped, putting herself between the two, her fists on her hips.  Erin stared at them both for a long moment before going 'hmph!' and sticking her nose into the air.

"Whatever!" she scoffed, "Fact of the matter is, I still don't like you."

"I don't like you either," Curiosity growled, in a way that meant business.

"You'd better be SO glad that I love Guen too much to have you kicked out!  I have a feeling Wraith'd kill me if I didn't let her…friends stay here."   And with that, Erin spun on her heel and walked away, not seeing the frightening look that Curiosity and Zai exchanged.

"Unless we beat her to it." Curiosity purred, chuckling.

***

After having discovered the key in his lunch, Neil Davis's search so far had been fruitless.  Wherever that demon was, it was hiding really well this time, and it was starting to piss him off.  All he could do was be grateful God had seen to working through Dr. Strange and giving him a way out of the asylum.  Clearly God had seen Neil's patience with the mission, had watched him fast these past several days, and decided to reward him for his patience.

"All I have to do," Neil said to himself out loud, "Is stay patient a little longer.  Good things come to those who wait.  And I can wait.  My holy crusade has taken me this long over the years.  No reason why a few more days should hurt."

And then it happened.

Neil had been looking out over a bridge, watching the water below, when he saw something surface.  His heart began to pound at the sight, but then logic set in.

It was another demon, one of the few stupid enough to not don a human skin when it walked the earth.  The doctors at the asylum called him Waylon Jones.  The orderlies and the other tainted souls called him, "Killer Croc."  Not too hard to understand the nickname, given his looks.  Clearly he was one of Satan's crocodilian minions, his sole purpose in his wretched existence to gnash his teeth upon the souls of the unrighteous.

Well, Neil wasn't one of those.  But he still had to be careful.

And, if he remembered correctly, this "Killer Croc" was besotted with demon-Addy.

_He had his sign!_  
  
Doubtless he was supposed to follow the reptile!  It would track down Addy for him without knowing it, and then he could kill two birds, or demons rather, with one stone.  He had no weapons on him at the moment, but he was sure that he could improvise when the time came.

***

Banshee had arrived in the kitchen just in time to prevent any serious injuries from occurring, though she had no way of knowing it.

"Blondie's asleep," she announced with a sigh, raiding Milo's fridge, "We got any chocolate?"

"No clue," Erin answered, "He's moved his candy stash since the last time I've been here."

"Damn it," Banshee muttered, grabbing a jar of pickles before kicking the fridge door shut.  She noticed Zai and Curiosity sitting at the table, and raised an eyebrow.  "Where's Guen?"

"She and Milo are having a…discussion." Erin said carefully, and Banshee rolled her eyes.

"You mean, he's berating her for everything that goes wrong, and she's just going to take it until Wraith takes over again." she snorted, "I'm giving them another five minutes before Milo comes running in here looking for someone to hide behind."

"This happens a lot?" Zai asked.

"A lot?" Banshee chuckled.  "It's practically their motherflippin' favorite pastime!  Nothing Guen and Wraith love more than taking turns pushing Milo's buttons!"  She laughed a little more, then offered the girls a smile.  "Don't think I ever properly introduced myself by the way.  Call me Banshee."

"Curiosity." the green-haired girl answered, smiling widely and displaying all of her sharp teeth.

"I'm Zai." Zai said shyly, tucking a flyaway strand of hair behind her ear.

"The redhead's Erin Knightly, and Magpie was the girl in the hoodie with the English accent you saw earlier." Banshee explained.  "You know, if you want to change out of your Arkham threads, there's a spare room just over that way where you can go.  No one'll walk in on you."

"That would be nice." Zai said softly.

Just at that moment, they heard a loud shriek of anger echo through the house, and Professor Milo suddenly charged into the kitchen and ducked behind their table, Rôssamund the husky at his heels, panting happily like they were playing a game.

"You are SO dead for that one, Milo!" Wraith snarled, stomping into the kitchen and looking right at him, black hair whipping about her face.

"We wouldn't have this problem if you would just keep your nose out of Guenhivyre's business!" he shot back in a singsong voice.

"What happened?" Zai asked, looking at Wraith in alarm, but before she could get an answer, there was suddenly a loud roar echoing all around them and everyone stood bolt upright, tensing.  Rôssamund's fur began to raise, and she let loose a growl and a bark.  There came an answering roar, and footsteps that shook the house.

"Oh, Hell…" Wraith muttered, whipping out her scythe.

"What in God's name have you done this time, woman?" Milo snapped at her.  She opened her mouth to yell at him, and the entire kitchen shook, the arched doorway cracked, and a huge, towering form burst into sight, his tail whipping in dangerous agitation as his nostrils flared.

"ADRIAN DAVIS!" Killer Croc bellowed, making them all jump.  "WHERE IS SHE?!  WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH HER?!"

Slowly, Wraith, Curiosity, Zai, and Banshee all exchanged a look, turned back to Killer Croc and simultaneously pointed at Milo.

***

Neil had to admit, the demon knew where he was going and what he was doing, and the fact he was able to make his own doorways was helpful.  He followed Croc into the mansion, not at all fazed by the appearance or size of the place, and didn't even bother to be quiet this time.  The big lizard-man was making enough noise he probably had no idea he was being followed.  They passed several doors in a long hallway, but he didn't stop to consider checking in any of them.  Killer Croc roared in anger, and somewhere in the house a dog barked, making him roar again.

Finally!   _Finally_!  He was so close!

He rounded a corner behind Croc, who charged into a lit room, a kitchen from what he could see.  There was a window in the wall, and when he looked inside, he saw figures standing around, staring at the demon in wide-eyed shock.

"ADRIAN DAVIS!" Croc shouted at them, "WHERE IS SHE?!  WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH HER?!"

Yes, the demon was definitely besotted.

He would have to kill them both before they could begin breeding and infesting their world with their hellspawn.  He glanced at the people again, and blinked in surprise.  Two of them he knew!  One was Sadie, in all her fairy princess glory, and her friend Zai, with all her pixie-ish charm.  There was another girl, but her back was to him and he couldn't see much beyond long brown hair and a pinstriped shirt.  He stepped to the side and saw two more figures.  The girls were pointing to a man, standing near a wall, who was wearing a lab coat.  Neil frowned.  Another doctor?

But the fourth woman!

She was dressed in dark clothing that mixed well with her hair, and her skin was extremely pale.  Two large blue wings sprouted from her back, and she held in her hands a scythe, blood-red with triple blades.  
Neil crossed himself and almost went to tears, thanking God in religious fervor.

He'd seen Neil's devotion and had decided to reward him for his faith and dedication to his mission!

For who else could this woman be than a divine angel of death, sent here to help him rid the world of its demonic disease?


	6. Cats And Compromises

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dear God why. Just why. I am embarrassed at the last chunk of this chapter. Kill me now. Find my younger self and dropkick her into next Thursday.

Chapter 6: Cats and Compromises  


Ethan Bennett was pacing his cell restlessly, waiting in anticipation for the orderly to come by with his meds.  Ethan wasn't allowed to participate in recreation time with the other inmates, for fear that he'd shapeshift the second someone took their eyes off him and escape.  Even group therapy was a limited and rare thing for him.  Many of the doctors felt that he shouldn't be allowed, but the majority felt he ought to take part in group therapy sessions, provided he was under watch the entire time.

He hated it.  Hated being treated like he was less than human, like a monster, even if he was one, even if he knew that fact in his own mind.

Only in the last week had he really tried to pull himself back together and stopped walking about as Clayface.  It had taken long, so long, for him to remember himself as Ethan Bennett, to picture his former, human face in his mind's eye and try to focus on molding his features back into the man he'd once been.  But finally, finally he'd got it right.  So since then, he refused to revert back to his Clayface form, keeping one thought in his mind at all times:   _Ethan Bennett.  I am Ethan Bennett, and I am not a monster.  
_  
At first this proved difficult to remember, especially when he tried to sleep, but it got easier over a couple of days and he'd really made progress.

But since the breakout last night, everyone had been on edge, and with all the orderlies and doctors running around discussing the details of the breakout where he could hear, it was getting harder and harder to concentrate on that single thought.

_NO, Ethan!_ he thought, _Keep it together, man!  I am Ethan Bennett.  Ethan Bennett!  I am Ethan Bennett, and that monster can't take that away from me!  
_  
He had to hold it together!  For Bruce, for Ellen, for himself!  He just had to!

But one wrong word, one false move, and he might just—

"Okay, Clayface," came the voice of the 'surfer' orderly everyone joked about as he opened the cell door, a tray of medicine and syringes in his hand, "Time for some monster mash.  Haha, monster mash, get it?"

Snap.

For one last fleeting second, he'd seen the handsome, mocha-skinned face of Ethan Bennett reflecting back at him from the Plexiglas cage.  Now his features contorted, twisted, and his eyes became two black slits with green, shining pupils that narrowed dangerously as he spun around, his body shifting into the mutated, moist white clay flesh it had become.  Snarling in outraged fury, he swung at the orderly, his arm extending like a bullet fired and pinning the young man to the side of the Plexiglas.

"Guess it ain't your lucky day, huh punk?" he snapped, his voice burbling, distorted by his mutated throat.  He withdrew his arm, leaving behind some of his clay to keep the orderly stuck, and shifted his essence, arching over and over again as he fled the cell.  He shifted again in the hallway, taking the orderly's likeness and running, muttering about having to get more syringes every time he passed other orderlies.

Suddenly the alarms started to blare.

_Guess someone finally noticed_ , he thought wryly as he reverted, rounding a corner and running smack into an orderly escorting another patient.

"Clayface!" the orderly gasped, "S-stay where you are!"

He clenched a fist until it became solid and blocklike, then smacked it into the side of the man's head, sending him flying.  The patient, a thin man of average height wearing a weird, three-eyed mask on his head, stared at him in astonishment.

"Thank me later!" Clayface snapped, running.

Spellbinder continued to stare in shock for a moment, then chased after Clayface.  He wasn't about to question his sudden change of luck.

***

If anyone thought that Professor Milo would be put off or even terrified of Killer Croc after all the accusing fingers pointed at him, they were sorely mistaken.  After getting past his initial shock of seeing the reptile man appear in the kitchen doorway, Milo's brain began working at light speed, and it came to one conclusion.

He had a male reptilian specimen with which to mate this Adrian Davis!  This was too perfect!

Without warning he pushed past the girls and seized a webbed hand, startling Killer Croc.

"In _credible_!" he hissed with glee, "I've never seen anything like you!  Your mutation is _flawless_!  Can you breathe underwater?  Oh no wait, you're crocodilian, aren't you?  Stupid question.  How thick are your scales?  Are you warm-blooded or cold-blooded?  Where are your ears?"  He dashed around behind Croc and lifted a section of his powerful tail.  "Do you have to rely on moving this when you swim?  How many knots can you do an hour?  Does eating before swimming effect your stomach?  Do you have more than one set of eyelids?  Where is your—"

"Excuse me?" Croc asked, lifting his tail out of Milo's reach and hoisting the scientist into the air by the back of his lab coat.  "What's yer damage, poindextah?  I ask ya 'bout Adrian, an' all ya can do is scream like a schoolgirl at a boy band concert."

"Aw, great." Wraith muttered, rubbing her forehead.  "He's gone into mad scientist mode again."

"Seems like that happens often." Curiosity remarked.

"You've only seen him being a manipulative ass.  This isn't the same thing." Banshee shook her head and took a few steps back.

"I can't decide which is scarier…" Zai pulled a face.

"That's an easy one," Milo remarked casually as something caught his eye.  A figure, skulking behind Croc, crouched low like he was ready to attack at any moment stared at him, and Milo pointed in his direction.  "He is!"

"Huh?" Came out of several mouths and Croc spun around, Milo swinging in his grip, and he whipped out his tail, catching Neil Davis off-guard and flinging him against a nearby wall, where he was promptly knocked unconscious.

"Who was that?" Banshee asked, reaching for one of her guns.

"Neil." Croc grunted in annoyance.

"NEIL?!" Curiosity and Zai gasped, racing out to check up on him.

"Who's Neil?" Wraith asked, tentatively trotting out behind them.

"Magnificent!" Milo hissed, wringing his hands with delight as he eyed Croc's tail.  "I _must_ take a sample of your DNA!"

At this, Croc let out an angry roar and slammed Milo against the wall, knocking the wind out of him and promptly shocking everyone, making them freeze on the spot.

"ENOUGH YAMMERIN'!  WHERE IS ADRIAN?!" he demanded, his teeth just inches from Milo's face.  The scientist stared at him for a moment, stunned, then slowly he smiled wickedly.

"Safe." he answered, "Though I must say I'm curious to know why you care.  And why you were followed."  He gave a pointed nod at Neil's prone form.

"Neil's her brother," Curiosity remarked, pulling the brunette man into her arms and checking his head for bruises, "He's out to kill her.  And the lizard just wants to screw her."

"Watch it, Fangs!" Croc roared at her, snapping his maw menacingly.

"Knock it off, Scales, or we'll rip you a new one!" Zai snapped back at him, balling up her fists and glaring at him defiantly.  He seemed taken aback and the dark-haired girl took the opportunity to punch him squarely on his snout, making him recoil.  Milo, however, hadn't heard much beyond Curiosity's words.

"Really?  How _fascinating_!" he purred, "I just happen to require a male reptilian specimen with which to mate Miss Davis."

At this, Croc froze.

"Come again, city boy?" he asked, tilting his head to the side.

"Eew, that's sick!" Curiosity pulled a face, nearly dropping her unconscious boyfriend.

"Aww, gross!  You've got to be kidding!" Zai squeaked, taking a step back and clutching her stomach.  She felt like she was going to be sick.

"Milo, you can't be serious!" Wraith said, wincing.

"Dead serious," Milo answered softly, an evil glint in his dark eyes, "Granted, we'll have to wait until after the final injections have run their course, but regardless I still need a willing male for the experiment," here he turned back to Croc, smiling in what was meant to be an innocent way, "And considering you're already a bit infatuated with her, why not you?"

"…Lemme get this straight.  You sayin' you tryin' to turn Adrian into a lizard?" Croc asked, scratching his chin.

"Brains as well as brawn, how delightful." Milo muttered sarcastically, then choked as Croc tightened his grip.

"An' you need a hubby for her?" he went on casually, as though nothing had happened.

"I need a male to mate her with, but take it as you will!" Milo wheezed.  Croc continued to stare at him for a moment, then loosened his grip and gently lowered him to the floor.

"Sounds like a plan," he remarked in a cheerful voice, baring all of his teeth in a crocodile grin, "What kind of lizard?"

"Gila monster," Milo answered, massaging his throat as he gulped air.

"They poisonous." Croc stated skeptically.

"I can give you an innoculation for that." came the answer.

"Good boy," he said, grinning wider and clapping a hand down hard on Milo's shoulder, "So Imma ask ya one last time: where is she?"

"I'll take you to her, Romeo." Milo muttered, shuffling toward an adjacent hallway.

"Ya know, I don't like you science types, eveh since ya messed with me," Croc waved his tail for emphasis, "But you alright, bowlcut."

"Yeah yeah yeah, I should feel so lucky!"

They disappeared down the hallway, leaving the girls to stare in speechless, stunned silence.

******

_[???'s POV]_

Sunset.  He was comin', I know he was.  He'd never lie tae me.  I'd been waitin' since I got the command in me head this mornin', but I dinnae mind waitin' a while longer.  He's not the quickest devil, but he always comes, right as rain.

I had me staff in hand, and I started grippin' it tighter and tighter until I finally noticed it diggin' intae me skin.  Guess I was bein' more anxious then I ken.  Perhaps it's 'cause he'd n'er been so late before.  Perhaps it had to do with where he's comin' from.  But whatever the reason, I worried meself like fabric a cat's been playin' at.

An' speakin' o' cats…

"Why, hello there, handsome."

Even with me hood in the way, her purrin' still bothered at me ear, and I swung round, tryin' tae catch her with me staff.

"You're quick!" Catwoman said, a smile on her face.  I gave her me best glare, let her ken I wasn't up for no dickin'.

"Ye more stupid than I be thinkin', if ye be tryin' tae waylay a magician." I muttered, the scarf over me face mufflin' me voice sommat.

"A magician?" I heard the giggle in her voice.  She thought I be funnin' with her!  "You think you're some wizard or something?  Well, that explains the dragon on the end of your staff."

"Ye think I be jokin', eh lassie?" I growled, grippin' me staff with both hands, feelin' the pull of the magic at the back o' me mind.  "Ye ought to ken better.  After all: Curiosity killed the cat, ye ken."

For some reason, she glared like I'd made a grab for her bosom or sommat, and bared her teeth at me.  What was her problem??

"Oh, don't remind me!" she snarled, pullin' a long, black whip from round her waist an' crackin' it at me.  I just managed to back out o' the way and start up a spell, sidesteppin' as she raised the bloody thing high again.  "That little bitch will get what's coming to her, even if I have to let the cops hunt her down first!" Catwoman hissed, extendin' the nails on her gloves and rushin' at me.  I could feel the ley lines pullin' at me, felt the tide ebb and flow…

I donnae ken why I be yellin' when I be castin' but it seems tae have a great effect on eedjits, and the wind spell left me hands eagerly, blastin' the bloody feline off her feet and across the rooftop.  Again, I felt a drain, drop in me energy, and me knees started to shake, but it didnae matter; now she be kennin' I mean business.

"Sounds like a personal problem," I laughed.  Guessin' she had a run-in with someone goes by the _name_ Curiosity.  Well, if that donnae beat all!

"And one which we oughtn't get involved in." came a voice to me side, and I relaxed a deal more.  He was here at last!

"Took ye long enough." I muttered, and Spellbinder turned, watchin' me carefully.

"Impatient as always," was all he said before turnin' tae the thief again and glarin'.  "Butt out, Catwoman.  Fantasia's done nothing to you."

"Nothing?!" she yowled, "He blasted me across the roof, and you say he's done nothing?!"

"Things," Spellbinder said, floatin' at me side and glarin' at her, his third eye openin', "Aren't always what they seem."

I ken what he be doin' tae her.  Hypnosis.  I done seen it work on other people, though it's never given me trouble, neh.

"Now, why don't you scurry on home, like a good little fleabag?" Spellbinder whispered, and Catwoman gave a nod o' her head before turnin' and jumpin' from the roof, disappearin' out o' our sights.

"I'm n'er goin' tae get used tae' that, ye ken." I remarked as he turned tae me, though his eyes still followed her trail.

"Strange.  I thought Sadie Curio had killed Catwoman.  I suppose she's got nine lives after all.  You'd better not get on her bad side, Jesse."

I flinched back at the use o' me birth name; he was allowed tae use it, no one else, but it still reminded me o' a time I'd rather forget completely.

"And you really need to do something with that orange mop on your head." he added, a touch scathingly.

"Neh, I don'.  But ye own head be lookin' farward tae some cowl hair, aye?" I chuckled, foldin' me arms at his scowl.

"Perhaps." he said, "Now why don't we get down to business?  There's something I need for you to do for me—"

"Coo," I muttered, "I be wantin' a break from the work when we be together, aye.  No' more work!"

"Something only you can do, Fantasia." Spellbinder went on.  Bloody bastard ignorin' me as always.  "You see, during the breakout last night, someone very valuable disappeared with Curio and the new girl."

"Valuable how, laddo?" I demanded.  I donnae like the idea that he may be thinkin' o' replacin' me.

"That's not of your concern, Jesse!" He hissed, and I stepped back again.  I donnae like him keepin' a zipped lip on a thing, either.  "But she needs to be retrieved.  Here, let me show you."

I felt his mind reach for my own, like a ghostly hand pressin' at me head, and I let him in, a bit reluctantly.  He never probes me thoughts, Spellbinder, but the contact's a bit personal and more intimate than I be carin' for.  I immediately received the image of a girl, a gixie with black Irish colorin', dark hair and pale skin, flouncin' a purple dress with a skirt that ended too high.  But at first I couldnae see anythin' special aboot her; what was he playin' at?  Then I saw the eyes.

One purple, one green.

Small wonder he'd taken an interest, what.

He broke contact first and looked at me, brown eyes soft for a change.

"She is called Zai.  She needs to be retrieved." he whispered.

"Hold on a second, boyo!" I cried, suddenly recallin' something I be wishin' I did no'.  "I heard aboot her before!  She's a toy o' the Joker's, neh?"

"Unimportant details." he said in a smarmy way.  I betcha he was sneerin' ahind tha' blasted scarf o' his.  "I need her brought to me alive, Fantasia.  Will you do this?"

I glared at him.  I didnae ken what game he was playin' but I donnae like bein' strung along for a fool, and he be kennin' that from the start!

"Fantasia…" he whispered, and he reached out with his gloved hands, touched my cheek and stroked my face like I was a kind o' horse he be calmin'.  "Will you do this for me?"

Bloody arse cannae use hypnosis on me, but this sickening feelin' be darn near close enough that sometimes I wonder.

"For ye then, Spellbinder."


	7. Fox And Hounds

Xack Hathaway didn't go out often if she could avoid it, and her neighbors at the apartment complex began to wonder if maybe she wasn't allergic to sunlight, they saw so little of her.  But this day turned out to be surprising in several ways, even to her.

Just yesterday, she'd seen a figure disappearing into the apartment that Joker had occupied as "Jason" when he'd been impersonating a maintenance man.  She hadn't been able to get a good look before the door had snapped shut, but Xack thought she'd seen a wisp of a green dreadlock.  At once she'd run back into her apartment and locked the door, hiding in her room, hugging her knees to her chest and hyperventilating until she finally managed to calm herself down.

_I've got to get a grip,_ she told herself, _If it is Joker, he's got no reason to come after me, right?  No, he'd come anyway!  But I still have the Batwave pager!  I can just call Bruce!  He'll help.  
_  
But she wasn't convincing herself of this.  Previously, when she was suffering her anxiety attacks or thinking she was seeing the Joker, Bruce had been skeptical and dismissive.  Even when he'd said he believed her, Xack got a feeling he wasn't being entirely true with her.  Her head hadn't been buzzing, but there was just something in Bruce's words that didn't meet his eyes when he'd said that before.

_Would he really help?  Should I call him?_ she wondered.   _Bruce isn't Shaun; he won't tell me I'm being paranoid and silly.  But without proof, he's probably not going to believe me.  
_  
She'd finally calmed down from her initial panic, but now there was a deep, painful black cloud of despair building around her, the sort that comes from being labeled a liar and a deluded trouble-making attention-seeker one too many times.  With a long-suffering sigh, she unfolded herself and got up from her bed, shuffling from her room to her little kitchen.  Her hands were pale, even by normal standards, and shaking still, even though she was breathing normally again.  Doing the only thing she knew might help, Xack opened one of the cupboards and took out a small glass, filling it with water from the sink faucet, and began to take small sips.  Her hands were still shaking, and she had to set the glass down on the bar after a few moments for fear of it dropping and shattering on the tile floor.

_I've got to do something!_ She decided, _But what?  
_  
A few moments of pacing and thorough consideration gave her the answer she was looking for.

She would wait until Joker made his move first, and see what he did.

This came the next day in the form of Joker leaving the apartment across the hall while the sun outside was still trying to battle the early morning gloom.  Xack had been watching at the peephole in her door at different intervals, not really sure what she was waiting for, and it came as quite a start to see him leave the apartment and take off down the stairs.  She waited a few minutes, then slowly opened her door just a crack and peeked out.  He was already at the door of the building, and she quietly tiptoed out of her apartment, locking the door behind her and desperately praying he wouldn't notice her following him.

It wasn't until they were halfway across Gotham that she started to get suspicious.  He'd so far not noticed her following…and she had to wonder if he was just leading her on, giving her that impression so he could spring around and terrify her when she let her guard down.

_Well THAT'S not gonna happen_ , she told herself determinedly.

It was less than a block after that revelation that she realized she was being followed.  She slowed down and glanced over her shoulder, but couldn't see whoever it was; they moved too fast.  All she'd managed to see was a glimpse of blue.

For a moment she considered stopping altogether; she was beginning to have an anxiety attack again. But she reminded herself she needed to find out what Joker was up to.  And besides, if he did know she was following him, he'd probably get pissed off if he found she'd suddenly stopped.  So she steeled herself, stood up straight, and continued on her path, determinedly keeping her eyes ahead, on the Joker's retreating back.

This time she saw the shadow on the ground.  Whoever it was, they'd taken to the rooftops and they seemed to be wearing some outfit that flowed…kind of like the robes Gandalf had worn in Lord of the Rings, and they were even carrying some kind of staff.  She had the distinct impression they were male.

_Is he following me?  Or the Joker? …Or both?_  
  
She shivered and rubbed her arms, despite the black sweater she was wearing, and walked a little faster.

***

Neil awoke with a dull throbbing pain in his head, and the wide-eyed face of Sadie watching him.

"Wh-what…?" he started.  The last thing he'd remembered was seeing the demon, Killer Croc, spin toward him…then nothing.  "Where is he?  Where's Addy?" he demanded.

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Sadie said, putting a hand on his shoulder.  "Slow down there!  You just took a wall to the face, Neil!  You need to recover."

"Don't worry about the 'demons,' Neil!" A familiar voice added, and he turned slowly to look at Zai.  She was giving him a rare smile.  "They're being held in custody!"

"Then whoever is holding them is a fool!" Neil groaned, trying to sit up.  "Those demons will breed and disease the world!  And it's not like any normal man-made cage can contain them!"

"This one can." Said a voice he didn't know, and he turned to see the angel, blinking dark green eyes at him.  "Adrian is being held in protective quarters.  She's out cold right now."

"Neil, this is Wraith," Sadie said with a nod to the angel, "She and her…friend, Dr. Milo, captured Addy when she followed us here from the asylum.  Dr. Milo's going to force Addy to…show her true form.  She's already gotten the first dosage of the formula."

"You!" Neil gasped, barely registering the rest of the words, wearily pushing himself up into a sitting position and reaching out to grasp Wraith's hands.  Her eyes widened in surprise.

"What the--?!" Curiosity gasped, ending her unfinished sentence in the hint of a growl.

"My prayers have been answered!" Neil said fervently as he stared at Wraith.  "My good holy lady!  I am but your lowly servant!"

"Wh-wha…" Wraith gasped, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Neil, what in the world are you talking about?" Zai asked, her own eyebrows shooting up into her hair.

"Don't you see?  Sadie, Zai!  This is the sign I've been waiting for!  God finally answered my prayers and sent me an angel of death to help me rid the world of its demonic disease!" he proclaimed in triumphant religious passion.  Wraith glanced up and raised her eyebrows at the other girls, but Neil didn't notice.

"Ah!" she said suddenly, as though she'd just realized something.  "So that is why I was relocated to Gotham so abruptly!  I had received the summons but I was told that I should not question the change, that the one I am to assist would find me!"

This time it was Curiosity and Zai who exchanged looks.

"God has shown you favor, Neil Davis!" Wraith intoned dramatically, offering him a brilliant smile.  "This crusade of yours has brought upon you many hardships, I take it?"

"Indeed, my lady!" Neil said with a nod.

"Then consider your faith and patience rewarded, Neil Davis!  For I shall happily help you to rid us of the demonic filth that trespasses upon the poor, abused soil of the earth!  Now rise and be blessed!" she said, placing a hand on his head as though she were a clergyman.

"You have my undying servitude and gratitude both, my lady!" he answered, thumping a fist against his thin chest.

"Please, Neil.  Call me Wraith or call me Guen.  You speak of me too highly when you give me titles.  After all, Lucifer spoke too highly of himself, and that led to the thoughts and actions that ultimately brought about his Fall!" she said, ending in a theatrical whisper.

"Of course…Miss Wraith." Neil responded, whole-heartedly understanding this angel's concern.  Heaven forbid she should join Satan and his demonic legions!  And especially after she'd been brought here to help him!  Still, it was rather odd to be on first name terms with such a heavenly entity.  But so great was his thrill at this gift bestowed upon him, a reward for his faith and endurance, that Neil wasn't about to question it.

***

When Erin came to, she found Wraith standing over her with a rather sardonic expression on her pale features.

"Wh-what happened?" Erin asked weakly.

"You fainted when you saw Killer Croc." she answered in a voice that sounded highly unimpressed.  A surge of annoyance welled up in Erin and found its way out through her mouth.

"What, and you didn't?  Forgive me if we don't all have cast-iron stomachs!"  Erin snorted, pushing herself up on her elbows.

"Oh, that's right," Wraith said as though just realizing something, "You're not exposed to Milo's face as often as I am."

Despite the fact Erin considered Milo a friend, she had to laugh at that.  Guen was sweeter, but Wraith somehow always found a way to make Erin laugh.

_Strange_ , Erin thought, as her friend helped her to her feet, _Considering that she doesn't open up to me as much as Guen does.  I wonder how in the world Milo's going to get around Wraith hating him if he ever gets around to—  
_  
"What are you thinking about, Knightly?" Wraith asked in that deadly soft voice she always got when heads were about to roll.

"Nothing." Erin answered smoothly, looking away from her, and noticing a new face in the kitchen.  He was a tall, somewhat thin man (though nowhere near as thin as Achilles,) with dark brown hair and golden-brown eyes.  "I don't think we've met yet, Mr…?"

"Erin, this is Neil Davis."  Wraith said shortly with a nod to him, and the man called Neil gave Wraith a look of adoration that was almost frightening in a way before turning back to Erin.

"Oh!  Well, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Neil!" Erin said brightly, giving him a smile and reaching out for a handshake.  He glanced down and studied her hand for a long time.  She was starting to feel somewhat uncomfortable when he finally reached out and loosely shook her hand, offering her a disarming smile.

"And the same to you, Miss Erin." he said sweetly before retracting his hand swiftly.  What was _his_ problem?

Curiosity suddenly bounced into the kitchen, followed by Zai, who seemed to be a human shadow with all the stealth of Dracula.

"Neil!  I found the incinerator room!" she purred, touching his shoulder and throwing a pointed look at Erin, who snorted in contempt and crossed her arms.  She didn't like the green-haired girl at all, especially after learning about her attempt to kill Ozzy last Christmas, and the feeling was obviously mutual.  Still, she was a friend of Wraith's, so Erin did her best to refrain from shooting a bitter retort at her.

"Really?" Neil asked in a voice of barely contained excitement.  His eyes had lit up in a disturbing way at the words "incinerator room," but it seemed Erin was the only one who noticed.

"Whoa, you were able to get into there?" Wraith asked, her own eyes going wide.  "Milo's the only one with the keys to get into there, and I don't know the password for the keypad; he changes it every Tuesday.  How'd you do that?"

Curiosity only smiled, revealing all of her filed teeth.

"Trade secret!" she answered in innocent sing-song.

Wraith smiled widely in response, and Erin felt a shiver go down her spine.  She knew the difference between her friend's two personalities was extreme, but Wraith continued to frighten her in new ways all the time.  Now it seemed twice as bad, with the influence of Curiosity and Zai on her.

Erin _really_ didn't like these two girls.

"Show me how and I can let you into the comsim room." Wraith purred in response.

"The what room?" Neil asked.

"Won't that piss off Poindexter?" Curiosity tilted her head to the side, her smile growing wider.

"A pissed-off Milo is a Milo with a _lot_ of darkness for me to feed off of." Wraith answered, her wings opening slightly as her smile grew murderous.

"Again with the whole darkness-eating thing!" Erin groaned.  "You still expect me to buy into that, Wraith?"

At this, Neil's ears seemed to prick up slightly and Wraith turned to her ever so slowly, giving her a withering glare.

" 'Better to keep your mouth shut and only appear stupid, than to open it and remove all doubt.'  Mark Twain for you, Knightly."  Wraith said in that soft, murderous voice.  "You should know better than to get suckered in by Guen's sweetness.  And you ought to know by now that ghosts exist, that they don't all feed off people the same way."

Erin took a step back, truly frightened now!  They didn't always see eye to eye, but Wraith had _never_ threatened her before!  Still, she couldn't just afford to be pushed around.

"If you're trying to scare me, Wraith," she answered briskly, "You should remember that Ozzy's going to be very put out if anything happens to me!"

At this, Wraith only rolled her eyes while Curiosity snorted and Zai burst into laughter.

"That fat bird?" Curiosity spat in disgust.

"What's he gonna do?" Zai giggled darkly, "Smack our wrists with his _umbrella_?!"

Erin felt her cheeks grow very hot, and she straightened her spine, standing rigid and holding her nose high in the air, determinedly not saying a thing.

"Consider yourself warned for slander, Erin." Wraith said quietly, "And know that when I say I devour the darkness in others, I don't stop short of taking it out of Guen's friends."

Erin felt her insides grow cold and heart sink.  If Wraith really wanted to attack her, she had her doubts even Ozzy would be able to stop her.  The dark-haired girl was too unpredictable to take the chance.

"Incredible!" Neil said suddenly, his eyes alight as he stared at Wraith, "You mean to say you can purify humans as well?!"

"In a sense, yes.  Though it's a rather bloody process most of the time.   Some people are simply…too dark." Wraith gave him a smile that only seemed to make him all the more excited.  However, it only served to frighten Erin further.

_Guen…Wraith…what's happening to my best friend?!  
_  
"Feel free to poke your noses around, if you want." Wraith was saying to the other three.  "I don't care if you get into anything really, just don't blow the place completely to Timbuktu.  Besides…Miss Knightly here and I need to have a little chat."

Erin took a step back, frightened, clenching her fists.

"Oooh, come on, Neil!  Betcha we can find some combustibles!" Curiosity said with a feral gleam in her eye, dragging the brunette man along with her.  Zai on the other hand, stayed put and watched interestedly, which didn't seem to bother Wraith in the least.

"What kind of chat?" Erin asked, swallowing past the lump building in her throat.

"Look," Wraith said, spinning around to face her, "Do you know why I'm here?"

"What kind of question is that?" Erin snorted, crossing her arms defiantly.

"Do you know," Wraith said, talking over her, and taking several menacing steps for her, "How I was 'born', chickpea?  Why your best friend ended up sharing her existence with me out of nowhere?  What caused me to break off from Guen?"

Zai was listening eagerly, suddenly wide-eyed and interested.  Erin could only stand and wait, her breath catching in her chest.

Was she finally going to hear what happened six years ago that brought about Wraith's existence?

"Now, now, Wraith," came the cold, smooth voice they both knew so well as Milo swept into the kitchen just at that moment, "You shouldn't go around telling Guen's secrets.  She might get mad at you."

"Keep your abnormally large nose out of other people's business!" Wraith hissed, turning on him.

"Yeah, who you think you are?" Zai rolled her eyes, "Professor Snape?"

"You know, he _does_ have the oily black hair and hooked nose." Wraith pointed out.

"Ugh!  Then, why the bowlcut?  You could go to Harry Potter conventions as Snape and be a hit.  Who knows, you might actually get a few friends." Zai snickered.

"Oh, ha ha.  You're _so_ witty." Milo scoffed, crossing the kitchen to start the teapot again.

"What are you doing in here anyway?  Shouldn't you be starting Adrian's second dosage of the T-99?" Wraith asked him suspiciously.

"I thought I'd wait a bit, let her get a chance to talk to her soon-to-be-mate beforehand." Milo answered innocently, though his smile didn't quite reach his dark eyes.

"Bullcrap." Wraith and Zai said at the same time.

"So why the tea?" Erin interjected, finding her voice at last and hoping for a distraction from the sinking feeling she'd gotten when Wraith hadn't divulged her story.

"I might have failed to mention it—" Milo started.

"Like so many other things!" Wraith muttered.

"—But just the other day," he talked over her as though she'd not spoken, "I spoke with a friend of mine.  I'm having some difficulties with some new tech, so I asked him if he would stop by and help with the debugging, since he's in Gotham.  He just called and said he should be here soon, and it would be rather impolite not to offer him any tea."

"You've got one skewed sense of manners, Geek Boy." Zai snarled at him, and Erin got the feeling she hadn't quite forgotten how Milo had threatened Curiosity when they'd got there.

"Look who's talking." He shot back casually.

"Milo!" Wraith said abruptly, her pale face draining of what little color it had, "This…friend?  This isn't who I think it is, right?  Tell me it's not him."

He blinked at her and looked slightly abashed, his cheeks going a little pink.

"Now, Wraith," he started, "You know he's a technological genius, so who else would I—?"

"YOU DID CALL HIM!" Wraith roared, whipping out her scythe in seconds, "HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN WHAT HE DID?!"

"Now, just calm down, Wraith—"

"HE TRIED TO KILL ME, MILO!"

"He wasn't in his right mind, you know that."

"HE WAS TRYING TO BRAIN ME WITH A SHOVEL!"

"Actually, it was a hoe." Milo responded with a slight snicker.

"What's going on, you two?" Erin interrupted.  "Who in the world are you talking about?"

As if on cue, they heard a huge explosion, a loud splintering noise, and Rosie suddenly started barking wildly.

"Ah.  Here he is now." Milo said, smirking.

"WHO'S HERE?!" Zai shrieked, inching over to stand next to Wraith.

"Knock, knock!" came a posh, silky-smooth English voice.  The next second, a tall blonde man in a top hat and a bizarre looking suit poked his head into the kitchen.  He looked around and smiled at them all, baring his teeth in a wide grin.  "I do hope I'm not interrupting anything, but I'm late you see.  I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!"

"Ladies," Milo said briskly, striding over to the Englishman and clapping a hand down on his shoulder, "May I introduce Jervis Tetch, the self-styled Mad Hatter?"

***

Boredom, they say, is supposed to harvest many interesting results, but so far the only thing it had given Barbara Gordon was sore feet and a gnawing hunger in the pit of her stomach.  She still hadn't gotten Batman impressed with her, but she was determined to try.  After all the trouble she went to making her outfit, (well, really she had only modified it,) getting the belt, (though it really wasn't anything more than decoration,) and taking her "equipment" from the police station, (her dad would kill her if he ever found out,) she wasn't just going to take no for an answer.

So she set up her own patrol when she had time in the summer and her dad was at the station.

However, it was past lunch already, and her stomach was beginning to growl.  So not cool.  She'd have to start bringing a snack with her.  No way any supervillains _couldn't_ hear her coming a mile away with her stomach protesting at her this loudly.

She was just about to call it a day when she noticed something very odd.

Two streets down, a figure was jumping from rooftop to rooftop, but he wasn't the Batman.

"Hello!  Something fun at last!" Batgirl said eagerly, heading that way with her handmade "batgrapple."  As she drew closer, she saw what had the figure's attention.

Down on the sidewalk was the Joker, followed by a girl in dark clothes with long brunette hair.

"No way!" Batgirl whispered.  If she could bring in Joker for Batman…

No, that was too risky.  Even she knew that.  Joker could eat a newb like her for breakfast and use her cowl for a toothpick.  And the girl…Barbara squinted at her as she leapt to the roof where the running man was.  She didn't know her, but she had the feeling she'd seen the girl before in some of the police files.  Why was she following Joker?

Still, even if she couldn't risk taking down Joker, Batgirl wasn't afraid of this other guy.  He looked like he should be at some comic book convention with the getup he was in.  As her feet hit the rooftop, he spun around, tensing and brandishing a staff at her.

"What's wrong?  Get lost on your way to the geekfest?" she asked, then almost hit herself for it.  Yeah, she needed to practice with the quips.  The man relaxed visibly, but he continued to point the dragon-topped staff at her.

"Ach.  Just a wee lass."  He sighed in what was unmistakably a Scottish accent.  His voice was muffled by the sky blue scarf covering the lower half of his face, but it still carried and Barbara was completely caught off-guard by it.

"Excuse me?!"

Well, not enough she couldn't be indignant about the "wee lass" comment.

"Look, gixie," he said in exasperation, "I donno' have the time tae be sittin' a baby bat, nor can I afford tae let the grown ones catch me when I be chasin' me bloodhounds, neh.  Go play with ye dolls, I ken ye still be havin' some."

"I don't play with dolls, you D &D nerd!  And I'm going to take you in to Commissioner Gordon!" Batgirl said angrily, marching up to him and waggling a finger in his face.  The man only rolled his dark eyes at her and shook his head, his fiery red hair flying.

"Neh, lass.  Ye will do me a righ' favor and get some shuteye." He answered.  He didn't reach for her or anything, but simply began to move his hand in a strange way.  Without knowing quite why, Barbara found herself going quite sleepy, and before she could reach out and grab the man, she curled up on the rooftop and her world went black.

"Sweet dreamin' tae ye, lassie."


	8. Darkly Mad And Madly Dark

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What the frig even is this chapter's title. I'm sure back when I first wrote this I thought that was very clever. Now it sounds stupid.

Needless to say, the sudden arrival and introduction of Mr. Jervis Tetch caught nearly everyone off guard.  Erin Knightly more so than the rest of them, and for perhaps the first time in her life, the sassy redhead was so stunned she was unable to form a coherent sentence.

"Oh…wow…" she breathed, trying to cover her fluttering heart, hoping Mr. Tetch both would and yet wouldn't look in her direction.  Dimly, she was aware of Wraith at her side, giving her a queer look.

"Erin…?  Erin, are you _alive_ in there?" the brunette girl was saying, arching a skeptical eyebrow.

"Frabjuous to see you as always, Achilles." the Englishman said smoothly, inclining his head to Milo and smiling in a friendly way.  His mad, blue eyes swiveled and rested on Wraith, then narrowed, his expression going frosty.  "Wraith."

"Jervis." Wraith's lips curled back over her teeth like a dog's as she growled out his name, readjusting her grip on her scythe.  Erin looked at her, frowning.  What was up with her lately?

"And who might these charming young ladies be?" Jervis's friendly demeanor was back in place the second he looked away from the winged girl.

"That one," Milo said with a disdainful sniff aim in Zai's direction, "Is an inmate from Arkham whom Wraith dragged here—"

"I'm Zai." she interjected quickly, crossing her arms and glaring at Milo pointedly.  Jervis extended his hand for a shake, but Zai took a few steps back and only continued to glare at him, staring at his hand as though it was covered with a nasty skin disease.  Jervis faltered at this, frowning a little as he looked from Zai to Wraith and back again.  However, he seemed to reserve judgment on her and instead turned to Erin, raising his sandy blonde eyebrows.  Nervously, Erin reached up and tucked a strand of her red hair behind her ear, feeling rather poorly groomed, and tentatively reached out a hand for him to shake.

"I-I-I-I'm…" she stuttered, immediately feeling like an idiot for looking so stupid in front of the suave Englishman.

"Ah, Jervis?" Milo said, coming right up to stand near them, looking between them both with a sly smile, "This is a friend of mine, Miss Erin Knightly.  Forgive her, she's usually much more articulate.  I expect she's still shocked by your entrance."

"Among other things," Erin found herself saying, without really knowing why.

"Fascinating…" Jervis said in a frightening whisper as he shook her hand, his mouth splitting into a wide Cheshire grin made terrifying by his mad eyes.

***

Her skull was aching dully, her headache throbbing and sore like she'd bruised her head several times over in the same spot.  Wincing, she tried to blink, her eyelids strangely heavy.  Even when she managed to get them open, her vision was extremely blurry, and the only thing she could perceive was green everywhere.  She tried to question it, tried to call for someone, but all that came out was a groan from her dry throat.

"Whoa now, take it easy!  You've been out for a while now.  Was wonderin' when you'd be wakin' up." said a familiar voice.

"Oh, _no_!" Adrian croaked, shutting her eyes again and wishing desperately that she was having some kind of nightmare.  However, after another blink cleared her vision a little, her worst fears were confirmed.  "Not _you_!"  On the verge of panic, she attempted to lift an arm to fend him off, but her limbs felt like deadweights, full of lead and laying limp and useless at her sides.

"What?"  Killer Croc asked, sounding genuinely startled, "Ain'tcha happy tah see me?"

Adrian opened her mouth to answer, then stopped, thinking better of it.  The last thing in the world she wanted at the moment was to see Croc, but then the memory of being force-fed that disgusting chemical came flooding back, and she wasn't quite sure how she felt.  Under other circumstances, finding herself waking in a room with Killer Croc unprotected would have been cause for major panic, but the memory of the T-whatever-the-hell-it-was and that creepy professor had her half-relieved that Croc was there.  Except it wasn't like he was trying to bust her out…he didn't sound like he was ready to start tearing the place apart, although she frankly didn't trust that…and even if he was there to—dare she think it—rescue her, it was probably just so he could eat her the second he got her away from Milo's lab.

"What's wrong with 'er, skinny?" Croc suddenly growled, and Adrian's eyes shot open, her heart starting to flutter in a panic.  She looked around and saw Croc sitting next to the bed she was lying on.  Professor Achilles Milo was at the end of the room, leaning against the door and looking mulish as the reptile-man snarled at him.

"It's a side effect.  Everyone reacts to the first few doses of T-99 like this." he answered sourly.

"What.  The.  Hell.  Is.  Going.  ON?!" Adrian ground out, glaring at the scientist, hoping he'd dissolve on the spot.  "Why," she shot a look at Croc, "Is _he_ here?"

"Was lookin' for ya." Croc mumbled sheepishly, looking away and wringing his webbed hands awkwardly.

"I was afraid of that." Adrian muttered.

"Waylon here," Milo said abruptly, striding toward them and placing a hand on Croc's shoulder, "Has graciously and happily consented to offer himself up as another test subject on your behalf, Miss Davis.  So you won't be totally alone."

Croc's angular cheeks turned a dark shade of green and his slit-pupiled eyes darted up to meet hers, making him look like a shy, big-eyed puppy.

_A puppy with razor sharp teeth and a bloodthirstiness to rival Dracula_ , Adrian thought venomously.  However, at the same time, she felt a little sorry for him, and slightly surprised and embarrassed that he would agree to submit to more genetic testing so she wouldn't feel alone.

"Th-thought I'd help ya…" he mumbled more quietly than before, "Help make it a bit easier…'cause I kinda know what you're gonna be goin' through…"

_That_ , Adrian mused, truly startled and feeling rather guilty for her previous notions, _is actually kind of sweet of you, Croc.  
_  
"And the other benefits have _nothing_ to do with your decision." Milo broke in, a sly smile on his face.  Adrian jerked her attention toward him, paranoia kicking back in.

"What.  Benefits?" she asked coldly, barely able to get the words out from between her clenched teeth.  Croc immediately went back to staring at his hands, and Milo only smiled wider.

"Why, mating of course!" he answered, arching an eyebrow.

Adrian's entire body went rigid as her eyebrows narrowed dangerously.

"What?" she growled.

"What, you didn't think I was _just_ going to give you a heightened state of being without actually taking the chance to mate you with another reptilian mutant, did you?" Milo snorted, scandalized, "Dorian never once tried mating any of his specimens, because he figured they'd all be infertile.  I, on the other hand, am not afraid of dirtying my hands with the messy science of breeding!"

Adrian's hands balled into fists at her sides.

"So," Milo said, looking absolutely delighted and pleased with himself, "We need to get you injected with Gila monster cells and fully mutated as soon as possible, so you can start bearing mutant lizard babies!"

***

The scream was loud and carried enough that Magpie and Banshee, both of whom were outside on the roof, jumped at the sound, the former dropping her can of soda and swearing forcefully.

"I'm guessing Blondie's awake." Banshee remarked, raising her eyebrows.

"Bloody hell.  Yeah, and I'm guessing she's seen Waylon."  Magpie added, not really caring in the midst of her annoyance.

"And Milo's told her he feels like playing God with them." Banshee added, pulling another soda from seemingly nowhere and handing it to the pink-haired girl.

"Cheers," Magpie grunted, popping the tab.  She put the can to her lips, then paused.  "Think she's going to take it just lying down?"

"No," Banshee answered for both of them, then added in a rather lewd tone, "I mean, have you _seen_ Croc?  He'd crush her!  If anything, she'll be on top."

Magpie snorted and choked, spraying orange soda all down her front.

"Admit it, I'm a genius!" Banshee cackled.

"That was terrible," Magpie snapped, wiping her mouth on the back of her sleeve, "And if anything, I think they're going to try ministry-style, first."

At this, both girls clenched their jaws, trying to hold in their laughter, determinedly not looking at one another.  This almost worked, but within seconds the skylight opened and Croc poked his head up, looking initially upset, then his eye ridges furrowed in confusion as he saw them.

"What's so funny, huh?"

The girls dissolved into fits of hysterical giggles, and he had to wait a good ten minutes before he could get one intelligent word out of them without setting off another round of shrieking laughter.

***

"Sadie!  Where have you been?!" Zai hissed, crossing her arms as her friend approached her.

"Nowhere," Curiosity answered innocently, running her tongue over her filed teeth, green eyes wide and childlike.  Zai snorted, then looked behind her and raised an eyebrow.

"Where's Neil?" she asked.

"Busy," Curiosity said evasively, "What's going on?"

"That's a new knife," Zai remarked.

"Found it while we—I mean, I—was exploring."

"…Right…sure…"

"So what's going on, huh?"

"Well, did you happen to catch a glimpse of the Mad Hatter?"

"…You're kidding, right?"

"Nope," Zai shook her head, rolling her mismatched eyes, "Some English friend of Professor Duncehead's.  He and Ginger disappeared into the 'parlor' a while ago.  I peeked in on them and they're discussing 'Alice In Wonderland,' if you can imagine that."

"So…?  What about this English guy?" Curiosity asked, shrugging.

"I'm not sure what to think about him.  He seems insane." Zai said slowly, and when her friend snorted, she added, "No, really Sadie!  You've gotta look at this guy's eyes if you see him!  He's way on the far side of screw-loose."

"So what?  We aren't?" Curiosity asked, checking her reflection in the knife's blade.  Zai scowled at her darkly, fighting the urge to slam the knife into her stomach.

"No…" she said testily, "I mean, what if he gets in the way when we try to throw Sassmouth off a cliff?"

"Easy," Curiosity answered with ease, "We shove him off too, and wave as they go down."

"And if he tries to pull us down with them?"

"Neil'll see to that if we don't have weapons on hand.  So where's Wraith?"

Suddenly Zai's normally dark countenance broke into a wicked smile.

"Oh…did you hear that scream earlier?" she asked in a voice that was barely holding back laughter.

Curiosity furrowed her brow.  "Yeah…"

"Milo told Adrian he plans on making her and Croc do it, and she blacked his eye." Zai chuckled ruthlessly.

"Oooh!  Who'd have thought the girl had it in her?" Curiosity let out an impressed whistle.

"Yep.  And since Erin's entertaining Jeeves or whatever the hell his name is, Wraith's…um…taking a washcloth to the lab so she can clean Milo's wound." Zai's attempts not to laugh clearly showed how well she thought that was going to work.

"Oh, this we've gotta see!" Curiosity cackled, "Come on!"

The two of them tiptoed through the long hallways, taking the route they'd followed when Milo first led them to the lab, trying to contain their snickering.  They caught sight of the lab door slightly ajar and composed themselves enough that they couldn't be heard spying.  Curiosity peeked around the side of door jamb, and Zai followed suit, both of them trying hard not to giggle.

"OW!  Watch it, you harpy!  That's tender!" Milo shrieked, ducking out of the way as Wraith made to dab at his eye again with the washcloth, none too gently.

"I'm _trying_ to help you!" Wraith snapped, her tone making it obvious she'd much rather not be wasting energy on the effort.

"Yeah?  Well, your help _hurts_!" he spat back at her, yelling again as she got another jab in with the washcloth.  " _Guenhivyre_ wouldn't make this _nearly_ so painful!"

"Gee, I thought you liked pain," she said in sarcastic innocence, jabbing a little harder, a wicked smile on her face.

"Not my own," he muttered darkly, now trying to wrest the cloth from her grip.  "Damn that southern bitch!  She shouldn't have been able to recover fast enough to hit me."

"You shouldn't have been standing close enough for her to swing at you, _genius_!"  she sneered, easily pulling the cloth out of his reach.  "You know, for such a smart guy, it never fails to amaze me how completely STUPID you can be!"

At this, Milo's hand show out and gripped her wrist tightly as he surged to his feet, eyes blazing.

"And it never fails to astonish me how you cannot keep a civil tongue in your pretty head!" he snarled, making Wraith shrink back, eyes wide, "You seem to forget, my little ghost, that I made you what you are now, and I can just as easily destroy you!"

Curiosity and Zai recoiled for a moment in shock.  They'd both seen Guen fight in the com-sim room, and they'd been expected Wraith to hand Milo his ass.  But she only cowered beneath his anger, her wings stretching desperately, like she wanted nothing more than to fly away.  They leaned in a little closer, Zai grabbing Curiosity's shoulder to keep her from rushing in there.  However, a few seconds showed them both that they weren't needed, as the computer started to beep in an odd rhythm and Milo released Wraith.

"Already?" the scientist sounded a little perplexed, but pleased, and ignored Wraith's pointed glare as he strode to the computer, lifting something from a machine that looked like a Bunsen burner.

"What's that?" Wraith asked coldly, walking over to join him.  "The serum?"

"Indeed," Milo asked, idly holding a stoppered test tube in his hand as his eyes raced over a readout screen on his computer.  "It seems the computer's finished isolating the needed compound."

"Which is…?"

"The single chemical that Joker uses in all of his serums, of course!" Milo snapped irritably.  "The Batman only ever concocts one strain of antitoxins, then wonders why they don't work whenever Joker comes up with a new round of his gas!  The key is in the base element Joker uses, the compound that attacks the nervous system and causes the full-body paralysis!"

"Sadie…" Zai whispered, her hands going cold.

"So if the computer's isolated the base compound, you can use it to develop a permanent antitoxin?" Wraith asked, watching the read-out closely.

"Theoretically." Milo answered, stowing the test tube away in a cabinet and locking it shut.  "I'm doubtful whether the antitoxins will be totally permanent for some of us."

"What do you mean?" Wraith demanded, whipping around, her wings drawing in tight, their feathers ruffling.

"I'm saying if you were to take the antitoxin once I had an initial batch ready, the effects should be permanent for you.  Your body continues to mutate, even though you've long since stopped taking the T-99, and in the event Joker develops a new strain of gas that renders my antitoxin useless, you still shouldn't be affected.  Your body will continue to adapt," Milo explained patiently, "And the same goes for anyone who has directly taken both the T-99 and the vaccine.  The rest of us normal humans however, are screwed."

Wraith seized the collar of Milo's shirt and slammed him against the computer, hoisting him off the ground.

"Oh, you poor idiot," she snarled, an ugly, angry grin on her face, "Life's a bitch, isn't it?"

Milo looked at her coldly.  "Look who's talking." he shot back.

With a snarl of outrage, Wraith flung him away from her, letting him slam into the wall, and she stomped toward the door, nearly running into Zai and Curiosity on her way out.  However, even as they ducked out of the way, she didn't seem to notice them and simply strode down the hallway fuming, giving off a particularly cold air.  Milo had staggered to his feet, a twisted smile on his face as he watched her leave, and once she was out of sight, he immediately rushed back to his computer, typing in commands at a rapid-fire pace.

"Zai…" Curiosity said slowly, turning to look at her friend.  Both girls were too stunned by what they'd overheard to say much.  Milo had a sample of Joker's toxin and was trying to concoct an antidote?  It didn't sound too different from what the Batman had done in the past, but how had…?

They came to the same conclusion almost at once.

Wraith had nearly killed Yin, hadn't she?  Yin had been in the police department on the night in question…

"You think—?" Zai said slowly.

"—that Wraith almost killed Yin because she was at the station—"Curiosity threw in.

"—to steal some of Joker's chemicals for Milo?" Zai finished, her expression going darker.  "I'd say that's a pretty good bet."

"Then why didn't she tell us about that?" Curiosity pointed out, staring at the place where they'd seen Wraith go storming down.  "Think she knew about you and Joker?"

"Dunno," Zai said quietly, "But I knew better than to trust her."

"Chill a sec, Zai," Curiosity whispered, "You've seen how Milo treats her.  You think she had much of a choice if he did want her to steal Joker's chemicals?"

"Even so, she could have told us!" Zai protested.

"You think you would have been any less pissed if she did?" Curiosity asked, quirking a green eyebrow, and Zai could only open and shut her mouth mutely several times, at a loss for words.  They were silent for a few seconds, until the lab door swung completely open and Milo loomed over both of them, his eyes icy.

"Care to tell me what exactly you're having a little powwow outside my lab about?" he asked in that creepy voice, crossing his arms.

***

Xack had followed Joker to the old theater where he sometimes returned to hide out, still frightened and curious.  She snuck in after him, and ducked behind some of storage cases to watch.  Joker still didn't seem to notice her, and went about his business casually, rummaging around the theater and inspecting some of his equipment, as though he was trying to pick out one of his props in particular.  Xack had a feeling that he'd stopped here to refresh on his supplies before going to do whatever he was up to.  He was examining two different pogo sticks when Xack finally sat back with a quiet sigh, starting to get bored.  At once a prickle ran up her spine and she went totally rigid.  Someone was right behind her, had snuck up on her and she'd not even noticed until now.

_Joker?  No, it couldn't be, he's still halfway across the building…unless that Joker's a decoy and the real one is—  
_  
Xack swallowed, terrified.  Something swung within her range of vision, making her jump and stifle a gasp, until she noticed what it was.  It was a small dragon, made out of copper, curled in on itself with its wings up protectively, and it topped the end of what looked like a staff…

"Ye're a wary wee gixie ye are, tae sense me presence like tha'.  Consider me impressed."

The voice was soft, male, and had a thick Scottish accent that had Xack hesitating.  She should run or—

"Comes with the paranoia." she whispered, hoping she could find an opening to bolt toward the door.  But the dragon gently swooped up under her chin, and gingerly turned her around to face her captor.  He was tall, for one thing; Xack could tell that even though he was crouching, and he wore hooded robes of a pure cerulean blue, with a dark sash about his waist and a sky blue scarf that obscured his mouth and nose from view.  From what of his face she could see, he was young, pale, and had dark brown eyes that stared at her with a mixture of interest and suspicion, though he didn't seem unkind.  Bangs of violently red hair hung about his face, escaping his hood and giving him a wild look, but he didn't seem to notice.

"Yer no' the only mot what's paranoid, lassie." he said quietly.  "What's yer name?"

"Yours first!" Xack hissed.  There was no way she was going to just hand him the advantage, whoever he was.

"Ye may call me Fantasia d'Madjai." he answered, not moving.  "Yer name."

Xack had the feeling that, even though he didn't appear to be threatening her (yet), he wasn't going to just let her walk away from this.  Besides, weren't Scottish people known for being stubborn?

"Xack." she answered curtly, annoyed with him.  Her head had buzzed a bit at his name, but not like she was used to feeling.  He wasn't necessarily lying about what his name was…and hadn't he said she "may call him" that?

_It's an assumed name…or a professional one, she thought,  Oh, come on!  Just let me go, already!  
_  
"Xack, eh?" Fantasia repeated carefully, and surprisingly enough, he didn't seem shocked to hear she had a boy's name.

_Does he know who I am?_ that paranoid part of her wondered, but he couldn't possibly know her, could he?  She decided to let him make the first move.

"So tell me, Miss Xack…" he said, tilting her chin up to look him in his dark eyes.  She sucked in a breath, her heart pounding wildly.

"Why be ye tailin' th' Joker?"


	9. A Strangely Demonic Alliance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, and in this chapter we have the very first appearance of my OC, Gawain Strange. I would apologize, but it's only going to get worse from here on out, and besides, I don't think I'm entirely sorry.

"Dr. Strange, Dr. Strange!"

"Sir, as the chief of psychiatry at Arkham Asylum, what's your take on this mass breakout that occurred earlier in the week?"

"Are the rumors of an inside job true, Professor Strange?"

"Dr. Strange!"

"Just one interview sir, just one!  I could lose my job if I don't get the one interview!"

"What's your take on the security at the asylum, Professor?"

"Professor Strange!"

He was finding himself overwhelmed by the sheer amount of reporters hawking him, and was rather at a loss for what to say.  However, he wasn't one to show that he was ever off his guard, and all the reaction he gave was merely a raising of his eyebrows.

"If any minds are curious as to my thoughts on the matter," Hugo Strange said slowly, steepling his fingers as the cameras flashed in his face repeatedly, "I do not dismiss the possibility that an employee within the walls of the asylum assisted my patients in their escape."

Instantly the notebooks were whipped out and the murmuring started up, several of the press looking both astonished and hungry, greedy for the story.  One of the reporters, a young redheaded lady named Vicky Vale, turned to her cameraman and said, "You are hearing this live, right from the mouth of Professor Strange, the chief of psychiatry from Arkham Asylum!  The doctor has just proclaimed that he's not dismissing the chance that the massive breakout from the asylum earlier in the week was the result of an inside job!"

"Indeed, Miss Vale," Strange decided to address her directly, stepping between the crowd with ease, and the young reporter jumped, spun on the spot and stared up at him with wide blue eyes.

"Professor Strange?  What has led you to believe this could be an inside job on the breakout?" she asked, recovering quickly, holding her microphone out to him.  Rather than looking at the camera, Strange kept eye contact with the woman.

"I've experienced previous trouble with certain members of my staff in prior circumstances," he replied, and when her blue eyes went wider than before, he continued, "For instance, a Miss Davis within Arkham's employ has shown signs of possible mental instability herself, and her brother, an inmate among those who escaped, has been a trigger for some of her more…irrational behavior.  There is also an orderly by the name of Gabriel Williams who has become dangerously close to some of the criminals whom he looks after.  And considering Miss Davis disappeared in the aftermath of the initial breakout and Mr. Williams has been avoiding all attempts to communicate with him, I think it highly likely that my employees are suspect and hiding vital information from me.  A most concerning matter indeed, Miss Vale."

There, that had done it.  Now, she would of course, inquire as to whether or not firing the orderlies was an option.

"And do you feel these employees deserve termination, Professor Strange?" Vicky asked, once more thrusting her microphone into his face.  He smiled indulgently.

"Frankly Miss Vale, innocent until proven guilty.  However, I do intend to interrogate Mr. Williams _and_ Miss Davis, should she resurface in the next few days.  And if I find any evidence of assisting the patients, then I will doubtless need to question whether my orderlies themselves require…inauguration into the asylum."

A hush fell over the crowd, and several faces were staring at him with wide eyes, stunned.  For a moment, nothing happened.

Then the school bell rang, and children began to flood the school yard on the other side of the high, chain-linked fence, breaking the spell.  The press began to mutter amongst themselves again, still watching Professor Hugo Strange as he turned his attention to the schoolyard.  A young boy, no older than seven or eight, was walking toward them.  He seemed a little tall for his age, with a heart-shaped face, light brown hair, and bright green eyes that scanned them with a practiced, distrustful manner.

"Ah, Gawain.  How was school today?" Strange asked the boy in conversational way.  The boy tore his eyes from the reporters and looked up to the man, but another reporter jumped in before he could properly answer.

"Professor Strange!  I heard it said that you'd adopted a son!  Is this the boy then?" the press agent asked, thrusting his mic forward, and Vicky smacked her cameraman again, directing him to focus on the little brunette kid, who was staring back with an unreadable expression.

"Ahh, yes." Strange replied, smiling again and putting a massive hand on the boy's shoulder.  "This is Gawain.  Gawain, don't be shy, say hello."

Gawain Strange looked up at his adopted father, blinking his green eyes, and then turned back to the press agents.  For a moment, it seemed he wouldn't say anything, but then his small, heart-shaped face broke into a charming smile.

"Good afternoon, sirs and ma'am," he trilled, "It's very nice to meet all of you!"

Instantly he had them won over, ooing and cooing at how polite and sweet he was.  Vicky Vale turned back to her camera, feverishly giving a report on the extreme generosity of Hugo Strange and his current excellent fathering, detailed opinions, and obvious professional values.  Several other reporters snapped pictures of Gawain and asked him how he was enjoying life with his new father.  The boy smiled warmly at them all, assuring the adults that he was perfectly happy, and couldn't have asked for a better dad even if he'd tried.  Finally, the press drew such a crowd of parents and children that the school security arrived to allow Hugo Strange and Gawain the chance to leave peacefully.  Gawain clambered into the studebaker first, determinedly not looking at the crowd, and even Strange found himself grateful for the opportunity to get away from the press.

"How was school today, Gawain?" he repeated the earlier question bluntly, as he had asked every school day after he'd adopted the boy.

"Fine." the boy responded automatically in bored tones.  "The other kids are going to tease me about this."

"And what makes you say that?" Hugo asked, though he was positive he already knew the answer.

"Because I'm going to be on TV and they're not." came the dull response.

"That is a very high possibility indeed.  And what are you going to do if they tease you?"

"…I don't know." the boy answered, sounding completely astonished, and he turned to look up to Hugo with a surprised expression on his face.  "I didn't think about that."  Then his face darkened, and he added in a quieter voice, "But I'm still going to get teased.  Mark Hampton's going to tease me worst of all."

_Ah.  Mark Hampton again_ , Strange mused.  Gawain seemed to enjoy bringing that boy's name up in school-related conversations at least three out of the five days he spent at school.  Wonderful to think Gawain already had a focal point for his anger.  Now if it could just be cultivated right…

"That Mark Hampton," Strange said slowly, "Is not a very nice boy, Gawain."

"Yeah, no kidding." the child muttered.

"I imagine he enjoys being a bully and treating you and your fellow classmates poorly.  And the teachers don't notice because he always seems to be nice whenever they are around."  he went on, casually throwing out stereotypes.

"Yeah, all the teachers think he's nice." Gawain said darkly, his expression thunderous.  "They don't believe me if I try to tell them what he does."

"Then only you know who is at fault here." Strange said, and when the boy gave him a puzzled look, he elaborated, "Mark.  It is Mark's fault the teachers aren't listening to you, because he has them convinced he's a good boy."

Gawain slowly nodded.

"And only you can do something to show them he isn't."  Strange declared, taking a left turn onto a main road.

"But what?!" the boy asked in exasperation.

"I wouldn't know," the man answered calmly, "After all, if the teachers aren't listening when you try to talk to them, it's time to take matters into your own hands.  And that means you must use your imagination, Gawain."

"I can't get in a fight in school," the boy muttered, jumping to the obvious conclusion, "I can get in big trouble."

"But," Strange pointed out, "If Mark tries to start a fight with you and he hits you first, you are allowed to hit back to protect yourself.  But only if he hits you first."

"Why is that?"

"Because the school has special cameras on the inside of the building all over the place.  The cameras are supposed to be there to keep you safe.  And if the cameras show Mark hitting you first, then the teachers will know he started the fight."

"I'm still not sure that's a good idea.  And anyway, I'd have to find a good camera." he muttered.

"I'm sure you will think of something, Gawain.  You're a very bright boy and you have a wonderful imagination." Strange reassured him.  When the boy said nothing but stared moodily out the window, he added for good measure, "And by the by, you ought to be careful.  I was just talking to your principal the other day about those stairways in your school.  I know that you need them to get to some of your classes on the upper floor, but they're so steep and the janitors wax them all the time.  One wrong move, and you could get hurt very badly."

He was focused on the road, but Strange caught the child looking at him from the corner of his eye.  At first the boy looked puzzled, then frowned as though he thought the advice pointless, and then his eyes widened.  The psychiatrist could almost hear the gears turning in that little mind, and suddenly, a wicked smile spread over the boy's face.  If the press had thought him lovable before, they would be frightened of him now, so demonic was the look on his face.  And as they came to a stop behind a few other cars at an intersection, the bright green eyes glittering maliciously as they caught his gaze, Gawain spoke in sweet, honey-coated tones,

"Of course, Dad.  I'll be _very_ careful."

And Hugo Strange smiled.

***

One might think it horrendous that a child would be brought to an asylum every day after school, especially when the asylum in question went by the name of Arkham, but Gawain Strange was not an ordinary child.  The first few times when his new father had brought him to the place he worked, the boy had been frightened, terrified.  But he was determined not to show his fear, not when he had a new dad to impress, and he found with each passing day, it grew easier to come here.  He began to notice what Strange was saying—these criminals, these patients—were people too, but they were sick.

Sick in their minds, he'd said.

Gawain had never thought it was possible for someone's brain to get sick, but there you have it.  And these sick people were his new dad's patients, because his dad was a special kind of doctor who was trying to help these sick people get better.  A glow of admiration surrounded the boy each time he thought of this, realizing what a noble, kind person his father was.

Far be it from Gawain to be selfish and tell his dad he didn't want to be here!  Not when his dad had people to help!

They were passing the cells where the patients stayed, like one big sleepover or something, and Gawain caught himself staring at the doors again.  He wasn't supposed to, because it made some of the sick people upset, but at times he couldn't help himself.  They were rounding a corner when they heard shouting, and came across a handful of orderlies and a doctor, all wearing tinfoil hats and struggling to hold a patient, who was kicking and snarling and attempting to break free.  It startled Gawain for the merest second, but he recovered, remembering that the men were trying to help the person.

The patient in question was a young man, most likely a teenager, with pale skin and blonde hair, and he was stubbornly insisting, again and again, that he had to 'see Ivy.'

"Now, Lee, be reasonable—" the doctor began, but the young man cut him off.

"You're trying to keep me from her!  I know you are!  You lied to me!  And the name is Pandemonium!" he shouted.

"Restrain him!" the doctor ordered, and several guards rushed to the scene in an attempt to assist the orderlies.

"What in the name of heaven is going on here?" Strange's voice cut through like a knife, and immediately they all went still.  Gawain looked up at his dad, thoroughly impressed at the respect he commanded.  
"Nothing, Professor Strange." the doctor spoke up first, a nervous quaver in his voice.  "Lee here—"

"They won't let me see Ivy!" the young man protested angrily.

As Hugo Strange approached them to further discuss the matter, Gawain followed, and tentatively came up toward the patient.  The orderlies looked at him in horror and started whispering among themselves, and one of the guards actually attempted to push him away, saying he should stay back.

"And what gives you the right, Mr. Hancork," Strange said slowly at this, an unusually steely edge to his voice, "To think that you can physically lay hands upon my son?"

The guard went whiter than a sheet, releasing Gawain and stammering at the doctor, and the boy inched a little closer to the patient, staring up at him, his expression skeptical.  The young man caught his gaze and snorted.

"What're you lookin' at?" he demanded, making Gawain jump.

"H-hi." the latter said, a little shyly, but the next second he felt a tickle in his head.

_Jump.  Go jump off the overhang.  Give ol' Strange a good scare.  
_  
Pandemonium's voice in his head was compelling, inviting, and the idea sounded like a good one, but a storm of fury rose in the younger boy, and he found the voice and focused all his anger at it, hating it, driving it away and crushing it to dust.

Pandemonium suddenly gave a cry of pain and surprise, collapsing to his knees, drawing the attention of all.  Gawain watched him, and when Pan looked up, the boy's green eyes glared at him coldly, two emerald chips of ice.

"That was _rude_." he declared, crossing his arms.  "You owe me an apology."

"I owe you nothing, kid." Pan spat, mental tendrils reaching for Gawain's mind again, only to be repelled by wall of anger so powerful he cried out again.  Panting, shivering, Pan looked up and saw all the orderlies, the guards, and his doctor staring at them both, wide-eyed.  If Professor Strange was surprised, he either wasn't showing it, or he got over things quickly, because he was watching the kid with an approving smile.

That smile terrified Pan more than anything else, and he looked away, choosing instead to meet the gaze of the boy.

What was wrong with this kid?  All that anger pent up inside that tiny form…and used as a mental weapon!

_Stupid, Pan_ , he told himself, _Thinking you can control him just because he's a kid!_  
  
The boy began to tap his foot impatiently, and the teen sighed.

"Sorry, kid.  I didn't mean to be rude," he said slowly, and the boy smiled, though his eyes remained as cold and hard as before.

"Good," he said, "It's not nice to say mean things."

"But he didn't…" one of the orderlies started to whisper, and the others' eyes went even wider.

"Yeah, I guess not," Pandemonium agreed mulishly.

"Maybe if you're good," Gawain remarked, his voice honey-sweet again, "They'll let you see this Ivy you're talking about."

"What's your name, kid?" Pan asked, determined not to be mocked about Pamela Isley again and wanting to figure out just what the—

"I'm Gawain Strange." the boy answered, holding out his hand for a shake.  "Nice to meet you."

Lee's eyes widened in abject terror and he looked from the boy to the doctor whom all of Arkham came to fear, seeing a smile so dangerous, it ripped a scream from his throat.

***

The boy had been, admittedly, shaken when Lee had screamed at him, but he seemed to be recovering quickly, already seating himself at the smaller desk set up in Hugo's office and pulling out his homework.  He glanced up as he opened his pencil case, and Strange gave him an approving nod.

Already the child was beginning to show signs, and at such a young age, too.  Still, there were many more things to set in motion, habits to instill as well as break, and different areas of his mind to explore.  The boy only had one problem thus far, and to Strange, it was already a stark, infectious thorn in his side.

The issue of trust.

The second Strange had taken him home he had told the boy, "Trust no one, not even me."

Naturally, the child had been confused by these words, as children are given to trust their parents and family.  Strange had gone on to explain both the conscious and unconscious betrayals made by people around one, and had sat the boy down and given him the best examples he could think of without making things too graphic.  After all, whether he was trying to raise his own criminal mind or not, there were simply some things that had to be expose to the mind at later times and Strange respected that.  The conversation had gone on for quite some time, resulting in the discovery the boy harbored resentment toward his birth parents for abandoning him, and by the end of it all, Strange had set the child off to bed, satisfied with the dark look that had been on the young face.

And for the most part, Gawain had become distrustful of others to the point where he was well on his way to developing a mild case of paranoia.

Except with Strange.

The boy simply didn't seem to realize that the 'no trust' rule applied to him as well, and it bothered Strange to think the child wasn't following his orders to the letter.  He would have to work on that.

There was an abrupt knock at the door, and the professor closed the file he'd been going through.  "Come in," he called simply, and Gawain glanced up from his homework as the orderly Gabriel Williams entered the room, looking apprehensive.

"You wanted to see me, Doctor?" the young man asked, the quaver in his voice belying his brave face.

"Indeed.  Please take a seat, Mr. Williams." Strange said, gesturing toward the chair on the other side of his desk.

"Some-body's in trouuublllle…." Gawain murmured in a singsong way under his breath, a malicious grin on his face as he eyed Gabe.  The orderly jumped, spinning around to look at him, then relaxed a little, his expression going stony.

"Cute kid, sir." he grumbled angrily.

"Yes, thank you," Strange said absently, waving a hand, "Let us talk, Mr. Williams."

"What about, sir?" Gabe asked, sitting in the chair.

"For several months now, you have been Miss Zai's orderly."  Strange declared.

"Yes, sir." Gabe nodded, his worst fears confirmed: Strange had dragged Zai into the conversation.  Clearly, this wasn't going to end well.

"I have allowed you to remain her orderly on good faith thus far, Mr. Williams, though at times you've exhibited behaviors and choices that reflect poorly on your judgment, and frankly, you've grown attached to your patient."

"Tha-that—" the orderly started, but he was cut off almost immediately.

"Do not presume to believe you have the permission or authority to interrupt me, Mr. Williams, and do not try denying to me the obvious.  You have begun to develop feelings of a questionable nature toward a patient, which lead to the aforementioned poor choices and sketchy behavior of one whose judgment has become clouded by their emotions."  Strange intoned, making Gabriel Williams fidget in his seat.  Gawain was listening intensely, not even bothering to try making a pretense of doing his homework, riveted by the conversation.

"Sir, I assure you—" Gabe attempted to talk again.

"Did I give you permission to speak, Mr. Williams?" Strange asked nonchalantly, and when the orderly fell silent with a stutter, he went on, "No?  I thought not.  Let us proceed to the point, then.  Though I have allowed you to remain Miss Zai's orderly, you've shown a pattern of giving into her demands, most likely stemming from desires coaxed by whatever empty promises she's made to you in return for favors.  Lately, I've seen no evidence of your caving to her requests.  I would presume she hadn't been making any.  I would have been delighted of course, to think this the case, but in light of recent events, I fear I must retract this line of thought."

For a moment Gabriel stared at him in confusion, then the implication dawned on him, making his eyes go wide, and his skin drained of color, breaking out in a sweat.  He opened his mouth and tried to speak, but no sound came out, and he had to work at it a couple of times before he managed to get out anything.

"You…you're not saying," the orderly croaked, "You don't think I helped Zai and those other patients escape?!"

"Doubtless you had no hand in the initial breakout." Strange said in a reassuring voice.  "There were others involved there, clearly friends of Miss Davis, as she disappeared with them once Miss Zai, Miss Curio, and Miss Pendragon were secured.  Of that I am positive."

Gabe could only stare at the psychiatrist in horror.

"However, afterwards more patients escaped.  I trust you know the individuals in question of whom I speak?"

The younger man swallowed over the lump in his throat and answered, "Yes.  The Penguin, Clayface, Spellbinder and…and Joker."

"Ahh," said the shrink, a satisfied sneer working its way over his features, "So you _do_ know."

"What?  No, that's not—I didn't—I mean—"

"Then I trust you also are aware," Strange talked over him, "That four different cell keys were discovered missing on the same morning of their escape?"

"P-Professor, you can't think—"

"I am making no declarations, Mr. Williams.  Innocent until proven guilty, after all.  However," his voice took on that steely tone again, "I am placing you on probation."

"WHAT?!"  Gabe shot up from the chair, "Probation?!  Why—"

"Be glad I am not terminating your contract, Mr. Williams," came the calm answer, "But it cannot be denied that, given both your history with your favorite patient and the circumstances surrounding these breakouts, evidence points to an inside job.  Naturally people will want the reassurance that such individuals with such dangerous connections are either fired…or institutionalized.  But again, until we are presented with incriminating evidence, such courses of actions are too rash."

Gabe bit his lower lip, clenching his fists at his sides, wanting to scream and shout, to wipe that triumphant smile off of the psychiatrist's face.  Still, he'd seen what had happened to Adrian when she'd lost her temper with Strange before, and he kept a tight rein on his anger.  Poor Adrian!  She wasn't even here, and Strange was still coming down on her just as hard!

"Understood, Professor." he managed to say between his clenched teeth.

"Excellent, Mr. Williams," Strange said with a low chuckle, "Perhaps if you don't repeat your mistakes, I'll withdraw probation.  But be aware: I will be watching you very closely."

The young man shuddered, glanced between the psychiatrist and his adopted son, and fled the room without a word, moving as though the devil himself were on his heels.

"You really think he did that, Dad?" Gawain asked quietly, once the door had shut.  "That he helped those sick people get out?"

"Oh, I am almost positive he did." Strange answered at once.  "Not because he was doing it to be bad, Gawain, but because he let some of the more dangerous patients talk him into helping them escape.  Some of the patients who are dangerous to others as much as they are to themselves, Gawain."

"So they brain-washed him?" Gawain scrunched up his nose in confusion.

"In a manner of speaking." Hugo answered, indulging the child's imagination.  Gawain was left to ponder this for a while, and the minutes stretched into hours as the two focused on their work, Gawain tackling grade school arithmetic, Strange writing when he wasn't seeing the odd patient every now and then.  Night fell, and it was shortly before supper that something happened.

Professor Strange was about to call down to one of the orderlies to fetch the evening meals for himself and Gawain, when there was a knock at the door.  He frowned, quickly checking his timetables.  There were no patients scheduled at this hour, and surely the other psychiatrists beneath him would have thought to let him know they were coming ahead of time.  No disasters were occurring, or he would have been radioed about it, and it wasn't the knock of an orderly or a guard.  They usually had tentative knocks that lasted for three taps, then waited, a sign that indicated apprehension.  This was a sharp insistent rap without breaks— _knockknockknockknockKNOCK!_ —indicating impatience.  Perhaps an air of arrogance, as well.  Most intriguing.

"Come in." Strange boomed, making Gawain jump.

The door opened to admit a tall man in billowing, high-collared green robes whose age was impossible to determine, flanked by several men dressed from head to toe in black, toting all manner of far-eastern weaponry.  They held themselves at ease, even as they surrounded the robed man, clearly confident in their assumption that Professor Hugo Strange posed their master no threat.  The man in question had jet-black hair streaked with white, slicked back against his head, a short, Fu Manchu-clipped beard on the sides of his chin, and dark-ringed, ice-blue eyes that shone with an ancient, honed madness.

Strange found he was liking the man already.

"Ah…Ra's Al Ghul, I presume?" he asked airily.  He'd never seen the Demon's Head before, but had heard numerous reports of his operations throughout the world, as well as the same description of the man over and over.  Frankly, he wasn't sure whether they did Ra's justice or not.

"I see my reputation precedes me." he said, a corner of his mouth twitching upward, "As does yours, Professor Hugo Strange."

"Forgive my manners," the psychiatrist commented, "Please, feel free to sit."

"I'll remain standing, if you'll forgive _my_ manners," Ra's answered coolly.  A few of his guards shuffled on their feet, hands reaching down to rest on the hilts of katanas, watching Strange with a casual, relaxed air.  Doubtless Ra's had them trained to kill within seconds at a mere gesture.

"Forgiven," he replied, just as calm.  Trained killers he could deal with.  They definitely put a hamper in a conversation, but Strange didn't fear them.  After all, he had his own ace in the hole.  "I take it you wish to speak with me, given your sudden appearance in my office."

"Naturally." said Ra's, and when Strange gave him a slow nod, he went on, "You see, I have come to Gotham in search of an item which has far greater value than any normal person may realize."

"Go on," Strange said, steepling his fingers.

"I have reason to believe that it might be in the possession of one of your patients." Ra's declared bluntly.

"While I appreciate you not bandying about the subject," Strange said, tilting his head to the side, "I find it rather difficult to believe such a notion.  The inmates are not allowed to keep personal belongings when they are brought here, and any found are immediately confiscated."

"Be that as it may," Ra's said with a polite nod, "I still believe one of your patients has what I am looking for.  Or at the very least, they know where to find it."

"Though I must admit I find myself curious to know what it is you so ardently seek, I am more curious as to which of my patients in particular you speak of." Strange said, tapping his fingertips against each other and watching Ra's carefully.  The older man's face tightened as he glared, and his guards tensed, gripping the hilts of their swords, ready to spring into action.

"An indirect question," Ra's observed, "Which I shall temporarily choose to ignore.  You are trying my patience, Professor Strange, something that is both difficult to accomplish and highly dangerous."

"You flatter me." Strange smiled.

"I speak the truth.  I'm going to give you one opportunity and one alone, to agree to divulge your patient's whereabouts." came the curt snap.

"And if I refuse?"

"Then you are a dead man."

"You do realize I need to know the identity of this patient before I can tell you anything."

"You do realize I have seven professionally trained men at my beck and call, waiting to dispose of your overweight corpse."

"Hard not to notice them when they're tracking mud all over my new carpeting."

"Agree to this, and I'll not only tell you who I seek, but I may let you keep your life, minus your tongue." Ra's growled.

"Tell me who this patient is, and I might just tell you where to find them." Strange answered, tilting his head again, his smile growing wider.

"Your window of opportunity is slipping away, Professor Strange."

"Of course!" he said airily, "You first."

There followed a tense silence in which the air in the room seemed to grow thick and stifling as Ra's glared at Strange, and Strange smiled back, completely unconcerned.

"Is that a real sword?" came an abrupt question, making Ra's and his men jump.  Gawain had sidled over to them, and was now poking at one of the swords carried by the man closest to Ra's.

"Don't touch that, it's not a toy!" the man in black said, trying to brush him away.

"I want to see it." Gawain declared stubbornly, crossing his arms and scowling up at the masked face.

"I never heard you had a child, Professor." Ra's said quietly, staring down at the boy with an astonished expression, blinking slowly as though he couldn't quite believe the child was real.

"Gawain is my son," Hugo Strange answered proudly, "I only recently adopted him, and I must say, he's turning out to be quite the precocious young mind.  Though I do apologize for his manners.  Gawain, it's impolite to go prodding at the sword of a man who's been trained to kill you."

"Sorry," the boy mumbled, still glaring at the man as he took a step back.  He turned and scowled at Ra's, scrunching up his nose again.  "But it's rude to say things like that to my dad.  Threatening to kill people isn't nice."

"Why, he's utterly charming!" Ra's gasped, truly delighted.  "Rather dark for one so young…but I take it that's why you're raising him, Strange."

"You're excruciatingly observant, Ra's." Strange said.

"Now who's being the flatterer?  Child, do you like that katana?"

Gawain blinked in surprise, then nodded.

"Perhaps you could have one of your own.  Would you like that?"

"A little, I guess.  Swords are cool." the boy mumbled, his eyes briefly flicking back to katana.

"I think I've garnered a general idea of your mission with the boy, Strange," Ra's said in low undertones, "And while I find it both admirable and fascinating, I see one flaw in your carefully laid plans."

A vein pulsed angrily in the psychiatrist's bare temple, but his voice was carefully controlled when he asked, "And what might that be?"

"He'll need training."

"Certainly."

"And please take no offense to this statement, but I doubt you are the best to teach him in the arts of combat."

"I don't presume to delude myself with the notion that I am.  But I suppose you think yourself qualified?"

"I do," said Ra's, "And that is a service which I shall freely give."

"My thanks." said Strange.

"Don't thank me just for that, Professor Strange.  Your boy has won you your life, and my respect." Ra's murmured, bowing at the waist.

Strange smirked.   _Ace in the hole._  
  
"I am grateful then, that you have taken such a liking to my son and I."

"You are welcome," Ra's answered, finally taking the chair.  "I do admit, I find an intellect such as yours a pleasant departure from the norm.  You would make an excellent partner."

"Why not then?" Strange asked.  "I am curious about your mission, Ra's Al Ghul.  I find you intriguing, a fascinating subject, and I would be most delighted to assist you in any way I can."

"Let him look at it, Mahken," Ra's said irritably to the guard who continued to shield his katana from Gawain's view, before turning back to Strange, "I think you are a very dangerous man, Professor Strange."

"No more so than yourself." the latter offered humbly.

"…You raise a fair point.  And I could use a connection in Gotham city, let alone one who is privy to the information I seek.  Though I fail to see what you stand to gain by offering a partnership to the table."

"The question you need to really be weighing about such a partnership, Ra's," Hugo Strange replied, "Is what do you have to lose?"

For a long moment, both men stared at each other with calculating, skeptical gazes.  Finally, much to the astonishment of his men, Ra's' face broke into a rare smile and he extended his hand.

"Welcome aboard then, Professor Strange.  I look forward to seeing what this brings about."

And a smile so frightening to be made of the stuff of nightmares spread over the psychiatrist's features, making his own son jump back as he shook the offered hand.

"As do I, Ra's.  Now tell me; which of my patients do you seek?"


	10. Like A Storybook Come To Life

Zai and Curiosity carefully avoided looking at each other as they each put on their most innocent faces for Milo, staring up at him with wide eyes.

"Us?  Powwowing?" Curiosity asked in mock surprise.

"Outside your lab?  Oh, we had no idea!" Zai threw in.

"Oh, you're both a regular pair of wits, you are," Milo muttered, rolling his eyes and wincing when the action made his bruised eye twitch painfully.  "Have either of you seen Erin or Jervis?"

"Saw them in the parlor a little bit ago," Zai answered dismissively,  "Talking about Alice In Wonderland, if you can imagine that."

"Oh, I can imagine that.  Just a little too vividly." Milo answered, a wide smile spreading over his face.

"Hey, answer a question for us, huh poindexter?" Curiosity said sharply, getting to her feet.  Milo glared at her and she took it for consent as she immediately demanded, "Did you order Wraith to steal some of Joker's serum?"

"Sadie!" Zai groaned, burying her face in her hands.

"I'm tackling the problem, shut up." came the irritated snort as the green-haired girl pulled out her newfound knife and held the point of it under Milo's chin.  "Talk, bowlcut.  Did you tell Wraith to steal Joker's stuff or not?"

"I did." he answered coolly, dark eyes half-lidded.

"And she just obeys you because…?" Zai asked, also getting to her feet.

"She has no choice," Milo answered mildly, "During her initial injections of eagle cells, she very near killed me, her brother and herself.  There was simply too much of the raptor nature building inside her, and her own anger and thirst for vengeance for her father's death weren't helping.  I had to take down the ratio of cells during the injections and soon she developed her split personality.  However, Wraith doesn't see the bigger picture as well as Guenhivyre does, so she has to be controlled.  Hence, her collar."

"Her collar?" both girls demanded, a nasty feeling boiling in the pits of their stomachs.

"My English friend, Mr. Tetch.  He's an excellent hand with technology that affects the human mind.  He initially helped me to develop Wraith's collar, and the tech inside it forces her to obey, not too unlike the shock collars used on dogs." he explained.

Curiosity slowly lowered her knife, disgusted.  Zai was about ready to vomit on the spot.  Much as neither of them could trust Wraith, what Milo was talking about was sick and inhumane.

"As for the why of the theft," Milo went on as though nothing had happened, "It is because I wish to make a business proposal to the Joker.  However, it'd be rather upsetting if he decided to gas me in the middle of the meeting, so I needed a sample of his serum in order to develop an antidote."

He leaned in close to them both and smiled coldly.

"Get the picture, ladies?"

***

Adrian could hear the yelp of pain from the room where she was resting, and smiled painfully as she heard the scientist screaming curses at Zai and Curiosity.  Despite how often the three of them had butted heads before, it was slightly comforting to know that they shared her immense dislike of Professor Milo.  Now if she could only find an ally in this place…

"Whatcha grinnin' about, Davis?"

Preferably an ally that didn't have scales, webbed feet, and a mouthful of teeth like serrated knives.  Groaning, she turned to look back at Killer Croc as he entered the room.

"Thought you'd gone to check on your friend." she muttered angrily.

"Nessa an' Banshee said they busy snortin' soda.  So I came back.  Wanted t' make sure you okay."

"Like hell you did," Adrian muttered, turning away.  "Not only are you a liar, but you've also got your brains in the gutter."

"That hurts, Davis."

"Get used to it, Croc."

***

"I—I'm not quite sure how to explain it, Mr. Tetch, but you are the most fascinating man I believe I've ever met." Erin babbled, tucking a red curl behind her ear.  She found she was enjoying her time spent with the Englishman far more than she'd ever enjoyed spending time with Oswald Cobblepot.  Almost at once, she felt betrayed by her own thoughts and actions.  Of course it was Oswald she cared about!  Mr. Tetch was just a friendly acquaintance who shared some common interests with her.

 _And a very nice-looking acquaintance at that_ , her mind added appreciatively.

"Contrariwise, fair queen," Jervis answered, his eyes examining her carefully over the rim of his teacup, " _You_ are the most curious woman I believe _I've_ ever met."

Erin smiled coolly.  She'd dealt with flirtatious men before, and hot or not, Jervis Tetch was _not_ going to get the better of her!

"Surely Professor Milo told you a little bit about me?  He insinuated as much." she said in an offhand way.

"Pish tosh!  You're suggesting that Achilles has his mind on something other than his lab work!  No, he simply mentioned you in passing, Miss Knightly.  Said he had a friend I would be most intrigued by." Jervis answered honestly, sipping at his tea.

That caught Erin off-guard.  "That's all he said?"

"Yes," Jervis answered, then pulled a pocket watch from his suit and squinted at it.  "Oh, my!  I'm late, yes, I'm late.  Late, late, late!"

"Late for what?" Erin demanded as he started to rise from his chair.

"Why for my tour of the city, of course!" Jervis answered, sandy eyebrows threatening to disappear into his hair.  "Doubtless, you will accompany me as my guide."

Erin's giddiness disappeared in a second, swallowed by indignant rage.

"EXCUSE ME!" she shouted, "And just WHAT gives you that idea?"

She raised her hand to slap him, but Jervis easily caught her, closing his hand over her delicate fingers and giving them a tight squeeze as a Cheshire grin spread over his face.

"Oh, don't fool yourself, Miss Knightly." He chuckled.  "Even you know by now that you cannot resist me.  So…show me the city."

***

"I-it's none of your business why I'm following Joker…" Xack Hathaway muttered darkly, glaring at Fantasia, slapping the end of his staff away from her.  Suddenly all sounds of the Joker going through his props ceased, and both of them gasped silently.  Shaking with fright, Xack put her trembling hands on top of the huge crate, easing herself upward to peek over it.  Her heart was pounding wildly as she saw the Joker looking skeptically over his shoulder at the pile of crates, a frown on his pasty features.  He began to head in their direction and Xack dropped down, paralyzed with fear.  He was coming!  He was going to find her and then he'd—

"Don' breathe a soond, lass." Fantasia whispered in her ear, clamping a hand over her mouth and resting his other hand on her shoulder.  "Don' move, iffin ye can help it."

At any other time, Xack would have pulled away, repulsed by the physical contact, but as it was, she was too scared to object, and the intense look in Fantasia's brown eyes was NOT something she fancied arguing with.  She instead turned her attention back to where the crate was, and had to bite down on her tongue to keep from screaming when the Joker leapt on top of the crate.  Fantasia's hold on her tightened, to keep her from moving, and she would have objected, had not something very unusual happened.

Joker was looking at them, right at them Xack knew, but he wasn't seeing them.  He was frowning at them, as though expecting an animal or something to walk by, then he looked left and right, an expression of utter mystification on his face.  Finally he scratched his head and shrugged, then hopped off the crate and went back to his props, humming to himself.  It took several minutes for them to relax, and when they finally did, Fantasia was breathing hard and clutching at his chest.  Xack pulled away from him when she got the opportunity, but stayed close out of concern.

"What's wrong?" she kept her whisper as low as it would go, still worried the Joker would hear them.  "What was that?  What did you do?"

"Magic, lassie.  An' I have attacks when I put more o' meself intae me magic than I oughta." he answered.

She wasn't quite sure whether or not she should believe him.  After all, everyone knew there was no such thing as magic.  But still…

"What is it?  Asthma?" she asked.

"Sickle-cell anemia." he replied with a shake of his head.

"Oh God.  Oh God.  What if you have a seizure from it and you—"

"Don' worry aboot it righ' now, lass." he breathed quietly, rubbing at his chest.  "I'll be a'right fer now.  We got us a clown t' catch."

***

The Cheshire Cat was having a grand time, and at Arkham Asylum no less!  The idiots continued to try to bring him in, no matter how many times he'd gotten away within five minutes of being in the walls, and it continued to amuse him to no end.  This time he not only had an escort of five orderlies, but the lovely and formidable Dr. Gabrielle "Sawbones" Lanyon was there too.  They were approaching a cell for him when their little party was stopped.

"Begging your pardon, Dr. Lanyon," said a smooth voice, "But if we could perhaps commandeer Mr…Cheshire, for a moment?"

He edged forward, trying to get a better look.  Sawbones looked livid beyond her normal realms of the description, and when she answered the speaker, it was through clenched teeth.

"Be my guest, Dr. Strange." she replied, her voice straining with the effort of being polite to the head psychiatrist.

Cheshire nearly snorted in disbelief.  The chief of psychiatry at Arkham was a short, balding fat man in a suit.  Next to him stood a taller man with hair that had white streaks, wearing a flowing green robe.  Between them walked a child with honey-brown hair and large green eyes.  He stared curiously at Cheshire, appearing innocent aside from the rather dirty look he gave Sawbones.  The orderlies and guards parted way, revealing him, and he almost yawned, preparing to phase away.  The tall man in green frowned and leaned down to whisper to the shorter man.

"Are you positive this is a good idea?" he wasn't whispering nearly quietly enough.

"I make no assumptions." Dr. Strange replied quietly.  "However, I am of the utmost confidence that we will meet with success.  After all, who better to send to catch your thief than a thief?"

At this, the little boy looked up at the psychiatrist, scrunching up his little face in confusion, before turning back to Cheshire, frowning as though he couldn't decide whether or not the thief was a friend or foe.

"The Cheshire Cat, you call yourself?" Strange spoke up abruptly, smiling in a polite manner.  "We have a…business proposition for you."

Cheshire perked up at once, curious.  "I'm listening."

"Some time ago, an item of considerable value was stolen from one of the men who works for me.  I would see it returned." the tall man spoke in a powerful voice that revealed he was used to getting his way, used to having his orders followed.  Chesh didn't like that.  No one controlled him.

"Yeah, not too interested." he answered, shrugging nonchalantly, ready to teleport out of the cuffs and away from the hellhole.

"Gawain?" Dr. Strange spoke the name in an innocent way.  Cheshire assumed he was talking to the taller man…

Until a sharp pain erupted in his sides, forcing him to double over and groan, and he met the eyes of the child, cold and dark as the ninth layer of hell.  The green eyes glittered, full of poisonous rage as he lifted a knife up to eye level, dripping with blood and a strange liquid Cheshire couldn't identify.  Desperate, he tried to teleport away…

Only to find he couldn't.

"When my dad and Uncle Ra's offer you something," the child intoned in an eerie, adult-like voice, "You don't get the option to say no."  He blinked slowly, using the flat of the blade to tilt Cheshire's face up by the chin.  "Got the picture, Whiskers?"

"Well done, Gawain!" the man in the green—Cheshire assumed he was "Ra's", through his haze of pain—clapped his hands, looking rather pleased.  "Though next time I would recommend you aim for a spot less vital if you wish to interrogate the target."

The kid had hit his vitals?  The little bastard!

"Oh, don't worry, you pitiful hormone-driven walking case of syphilis." Ra's waved it off airly, "It's easily fixed."

"Easy for you to say." Chesh muttered.

"So, Mr. Cheshire Cat," Dr. Strange chuckled out the name with a degree of disdainful amusement, "Do we have a deal?"

He winced, feeling the blood pooling at his sides, and looked at them all.  Gawain stared at him, the green eyes half-lidded and deadly.

Chesh would never admit it, but it was the kid who scared him the most.

"Just tell me what the hell it is you want me to steal, and who I'm stealing it from." he moaned in defeat.

"That's more like it." Strange said in an encouraging tone.

"As for the sensitive details needed to answer your questions," Ra's replied, "Those are best saved for more private quarters.  In the meantime, you may want to get that scratch looked at.  Gawain may need to work on his aim, but a knife in the hands of an untrained man is twice as deadly as being in the grip of one who knows how to use it."


	11. By Sight And Word Of Mouth

Breaking out of Arkham had proved easier than ever, thanks to the mysterious key that had appeared in his food.  The Penguin wasn't entirely sure whether he'd been meant to find it or whether the orderlies were just that stupid, but he was not one to question a run of luck, so he'd used the key well and slipped free, flown the nest, and was retreating to Cobblepot manor.  He'd gone to his abandoned ship the last few times, so he figured it was about time to change things up a bit.  After all, the Batman might pick up on a pattern, right?

The Kabuki Twins weren't there when he arrived, but he didn't think too much of it.  Pearl and Opal were probably still back in Arkham, and once they heard he'd broken out, they'd doubtless get free and come back to him.  In the meantime, he had other ways of keeping himself occupied.  He took to rummaging through the manor, looking for Erin Knightly's phone number.  All he would have to do would be call, and she'd come and keep him…busy.

"Where is it?  Stupid thing.  Can't find anything in this place…" he muttered as he searched, going so far as to lift up an old rug.  However, he was only met with a bunch of dust bunnies, and fell on his backside in a sneezing fit.  His temper was flaring and on edge when he heard a small tapping sound.

"Huh?"  he looked around, expecting one of his birds to be in the room, but he was alone.  "Who's there?"

Then he saw it.  It was a magnificent, dark blue eagle perched outside the window, fixing him with a predator's glare.

Funny.  It seemed a little familiar.

"What's this?" he asked aloud, positive he'd seen the eagle before, even though it wasn't one of his aviary.  He stood, crossed the room to the window, and lifted it open.  The eagle gave a terrible screech, as though it was offended he'd taken so long to notice it, and hopped inside, hindered by a rolled tube of parchment on its leg.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, gripe away." Penguin muttered darkly, reaching down to pull the paper off its leg, only to have the eagle snap its beak at him.  "HEY!  I'm _trying_ to help, here!  Knock it off!"

The bird gave him a cross look but didn't snap when he reached again for the tube on its leg.  He pulled it off, unrolling the message as the eagle hopped onto his desk with a screech.  The note was written in Erin's handwriting, and basically stated that she had a friend who could no longer care for the eagle, (which just happened to be a harpy eagle, with a rare DNA mutation that turned her feathers a deep blue,) and Erin had suggested the eagle be sent to Penguin, since he never objected to expanding his vast aviary.

"Huh.  She knows me so well." he said in a pleased voice to the bird, before glancing back at the paper.  "So, your name is Azhure.  Who'd ever wanna get rid of a beauty like you?"

"My boss."

"Huh?" Penguin spluttered, still looking at Azhure.  "Did…did you just talk?"

A shadow suddenly fell across him, spilling over the room like dark water and coming to rest on the wall he was facing.

"I did, bird man." came a cold, familiar voice.

"AUK!" he squawked, spinning and stumbling on the spot, reaching for one of his umbrellas, only to find it wasn't anywhere within grabbing range.  A young woman in a dark hood with two huge wings was standing over him, a wicked, blood-colored, triple-bladed scythe in her hands.

"Having a nice day, Pengers?" Wraith asked, green eyes glittering coldly as she grinned at him.

"What are you doing here?!  I'll have you know this is Cobblepot manor, missy!  And NO ONE sneaks up on Oswald Cobblepot in his own home!" he shrieked indignantly, surging to his feet.

"Of course not, Pengers.  See, I'm not really sneaking up on you.  I'm here to give you a juicy little bit of gossip.  The kind I think you might find useful." she said in a sly tone.

He watched her carefully, and to stall for time, he glanced over at the eagle then slowly looked back to her.  "You said your boss wanted to get rid of her?"

"Duh," Wraith scoffed, flexing her wings, "He was only using her for cell injections.  How do you think I got these?  He wanted to kill her.  Erin suggested that we send Azhure to you."

For a long moment, the Penguin was quiet, lost in thought, before he finally said, "What kind of gossip?"

Wraith grinned.

_Time for a little retribution, Mr. Tetch…_

***

Neil Davis stepped carefully through the mansion, studying it in detail, making a 3-D map in his head.  The place was well-built, and heavily fortified.  So far, there'd been no evidence to suggest that the angel of death lived in an unholy house, and nothing had met with his disapproval thus far.  He was rather certain he'd managed to cover all the ground possible, and was heading back to find Sadie and Zai, when a hallway caught his eye.  Frowning, he stepped down it.  It was a dead end, with a window looking on the grounds outside, and two doors, one on each wall.  Glancing at the door to his right, it somehow seemed slightly familiar, and after a moment's pondering, he realized it was the same door that led to the furnace room he'd discovered with Sadie.  But the other door…

Neil cast a furtive look back over his shoulder, making sure no one was there, then slowly approached the door and opened it quietly, pushing it inward with a slight creak.  The noise set his teeth on edge, but he managed to slip inside quietly and push it to behind him.  The soft light from the gray sky outside threw enough illumination into the place for him to see it was an abandoned ballroom, with heavy, huge suits of antique armor lining the walls and pillars, and a large, oversized super computer sitting against the far wall. One wall was facing out toward a grounds and a garden, huge glass doors revealing a view of an ivy-choked fountain and broken stone paths beyond.  A thick layer of dust covered the floor, and Neil had to fight down a sneeze as he crossed, nearly choking on the stale air.  He knew, despite the size of the ballroom, he could cross in only a minute or two, but time seemed to slow down to a crawl as he went, feeling as though the suits of armor were watching him, following his every movement.  He paused, directly in the center of the room, then slowly rotated on the spot, watching the armor carefully.

Something about this room didn't feel right, Neil decided as his eyes darted back and forth.  It felt…almost… _alive_.

"Neil!"

He almost jumped, then realized someone was shouting for him in the distance.  Either it was Sadie or Zai, one of the two, and they must be looking for him.  For a second, Neil was torn.  He could of course, run out there and reassure them of where he was.  But he felt drawn to the computer, like he just had to turn it on and find out its purpose.

But there was no point to it.  He could always come back later.

He turned, about to leave.

That was when he heard the whispers.

***

"Neil!" Curiosity called out, looking for the young, golden-eyed man.

"But Sadie, what's he going to do?" Zai asked, exasperated.  The two of them had given Professor Milo a rather nice twin for his black eye, not to mention a good few bruises elsewhere, but Curiosity had insisted they find Neil and tell him about the scientist's mistreatment of Wraith.

Zai still wasn't quite sure she saw the point.  Wraith hadn't been completely honest with them, so she still wasn't sure whether they should trust her.  However, she agreed that the way Milo treated their friend was cruel and had to be stopped.  But she failed to see what telling Neil would do.  Curiosity, on the other hand, seemed convinced it was the best course of action to take.  In spite of this, they had yet to actually find him first.  The Pendragon mansion was simply enormous, and Neil seemed to be able to disappear within its walls as easily as if he'd lived there his entire life.

"Neil!" Curiosity called out again.

"Neil!" Zai shouted, adding her voice to the search, in hopes he'd respond better to the both of them looking for him.  They were just about convinced to give up when they passed a hallway with a short end and two doors on either side.

"Hey, that's the door to the furnace room." Curiosity murmured, pointing to the one on the right.

"Do I even want to know how you know that?" Zai asked.

The green-haired girl shook her head in response, then frowned at the other door.  "That's weird.  I don't remember seeing this door the last time."

"Sadie," Zai whispered, grabbing her friend by the arm as she pointed to the door on the left, "It's open."

They both looked and saw that indeed, the door was slightly ajar.

"Think Neil went in there?"

"It's worth a look."

They approached it slowly, then pushed the door open.  Beyond was a massive, dusty old ballroom, lined with fancy old suits of armor.  And standing within, fixed dead center in the room, was Neil Davis.

"Neil!" Curiosity sighed with relief, "Where've you been?  We've been looking all over—"

"Shh!" Neil said sharply, putting a finger to his lips as his golden eyes darted around the room.  The two girls exchanged a glance.  What in the world was he going on about?

Then they heard the voices whispering in the ballroom.

_Look.  More of them.  These two are young women._  
What are they all doing here?  No one is supposed to know…  
They have come here…as guests…  
Guests in the House of Pendragon…?  
Guests in the House of Pendragon…  
But they carry weapons.  How do we know they pose no threat?  
They have come…by invitation…of Guenhivyre.  
They seem dangerous…violent…not trustworthy…  
Are those not traits that describe the House of Pendragon in this day and age?  If they stand as the friends of Guenhivyre, they pose no threat…  
  
"Look," Curiosity said suddenly into the gloom, "I don't know what's going on here, but I don't like being talked about like I'm not here!"

"Sadie!" Zai hissed.  She didn't want her friend upsetting…whatever it was that was talking, and getting them into more trouble.  The ballroom gave her a creepy feeling, almost as though it was intelligent and alive, and the voices they were hearing only added to that.

The fact that all three of them were clearly hearing it only made matters worse.

"Now I don't know exactly what's going on here, but if you think we're some kind of threat to Guen, or Wraith, or whatever she calls herself, we're not!  We came here to find our friend, this guy, Neil," Curiosity gestured toward him as she looked around at the empty room, "So he can help us get Guen out of a tight spot.  If that doesn't tell you we aren't a threat, then I don't know what does."

The voices had fallen silent as she spoke, and remained silent for a time after she finished speaking, then sighed as one.

_They speak the truth._  
They are bold and loyal in their own manner.  
They are worthy.  
Worthy…?  
Worthy.  Worthy of the friendship of House Pendragon.  
The circle is renewing itself.  
Yes, the circle is rebuilding…the House of Pendragon remembers its blood.  
Remembers its blood…  
  
Suddenly the glass doors on the wall blew open, a high wind screaming through the room and whipping them with a gale fury.  Then, just as abruptly, it quieted, and blew back out, taking a layer of the dust with it.  Coughing and sneezing, they reeled from inhaling the dust, and Zai wiped her eyes as she doubled over.  Blinking, she realized what the wind had done, and what was revealed beneath their feet.

"You guys…" she whispered, pointing.  Neil and Curiosity blinked at her, trying to clear the dust from their vision, then looked down.

Three huge, interlocking rings covered the length of the ballroom floor, marking a simple, yet beautiful pattern on it.  Large words, designed to look like creeping ivy, were trapped within the circles, and they had to back up to read them.  Most of it, however, was written in an unrecognizable, flowing script, except for the words in the center, where the three circles overlapped.  Mismatched eyes opening wide, Zai began to read in a quiet, shocked voice.

" 'The House of Pendragon will rise again and reign eternal, as it was foreseen when Arthur wrapped his hand 'round the hilt of glorious Excalibur.'"

"Guess Guen's family really takes the whole Arthur legend seriously." Curiosity murmured.

"But it's just a legend," Zai murmured, shaking her head in disbelief, "None of them really existed.  There wasn't an Arthur, or a sword called Excalibur."

"Then what are those?" Neil finally spoke up, pointing to the two suits of armor closest to the supercomputer.  Both girls looked up, following the finger, and realized why he was pointing them out.  All the other suits of armor had uniform swords; gray, unadorned and simple-looking heavy blades.  But the last two had completely different swords.

The armor to the left held a huge sword that seemed to be made of midnight.  The blade was a deep obsidian black, as was the hilt, and the pommel and crossguard were shot through with jagged lines of red, interlocking and twisting at sharp angles and making wicked looking points in the designs.

The armor on the right, however, held a sword of supreme beauty.  The blade shown such a bright silver, it almost looked as though it produced its own illumination, and the pommel, hilt, and crossguard were covered in green and blue, ornately created designs that ran even over the first foot of the blade, in a strange Celtic knot.

All three of them exchanged a look, both doubtful and curious.

A loud, enraged roar startled them from their trance, and as one, they turned and raced from the ballroom, Neil at the fore, bloodlust on his face as he ran in the direction of Killer Croc's voice.

***

"YAH LITTLE LYIN' BOWLCUT!"

"Stop throwing my equipment!" the scientist shouted over the crashing of his vials of chemicals.  "You're ruining the place!"

"YAH SAID IT WOULDN'T HURT HER!"

"I never said that, you deluded walking handbag!"

"WELL FIX IT!"

Achilles Milo grimaced, ducking beneath one of the counters in his lab before Killer Croc could get a good hold on him.  Strapped to one of the operating tables in the far corner, Adrian Davis twitched and jerked, moaning weakly in pain as her eyes shut tight.  Milo hadn't been lying; he knew the process of the change was painful, and though he'd tried to administer something for that pain, he was no anesthesiologist.  Regardless, he couldn't help but feel that something was slightly off about this initial injection of cells.  It seemed to be taking the subject much longer to adapt and concave to the mutanagetic process, which was _not_ something he was used to dealing with.

It was no secret by now that Adrian Davis was a fighter, however well she managed to keep a hold on herself.

But with the unusual toll the T-99 and gila cells were taking on her, Milo hoped that was the only reason it was taking her so long to adapt.

_That had better be the reason_ , he thought to himself grimly, _Or Guenhivyre and Croc are going to have to flip a coin to see who takes the first swing at me!_

__

***

Joker kept his pace light and even as he slipped through the side streets of Gotham, practically unnoticed by the entire city.  As he went, he hummed merrily to himself, jumping back and forth between the tune for "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Yankee Doodle," his mind supplying its own lines of rather…unusual lyrics.  To any passers-by, he would have appeared to be delighted with something or another, and walking along on his merry way, carting a large leather bag of props on his back like a twisted Santa Claus, lost in whatever was amusing his mind.

Which was precisely what he was counting on.

Though he never switched his posture in the slightest, his eyes would dart to the ground every now and then, and he would smile in satisfaction.  The two shadows that had been following his own for some time now never seemed to draw much nearer, but whenever he'd put on a burst of speed, they never seemed to fall behind either.  He paused at one point, pretending to be examining goods in the window of a shop to anyone who saw him.

He'd grinned at the reflection of Xack Hathaway keeping a safe distance from him, feeling rather pleased that it was her following him for once and not the other way around.  The weird kid in the Dungeons and Dragons get-up was unexpected, but of little concern to him.  The kid seemed to stick right with Xackie, and hovered around her protectively, like he was trying to get practice in for Helicopter Parents 101.

It was during one of these pauses that Joker remembered he still had one more job to carry out.  Finding out where Curiosity and Wraith had drug Zai off to was still priority number one, but there was still the matter of the pesky little librarian who'd so ruthlessly tried to brain him with a book last month.  He let out a low growl of annoyance.

Even if he had to wait to get to it secondly, Jeanette Harker was going to get her comeuppance, make no mistake about that!

Unbeknownst to Joker and his little tagalongs however, two more sets of eyes observed them all from above.

The first figure crossed his arms and grimaced.  The second tossed him a look of questioning.

"Well, Incubus?" she asked, "We gonna go tell the Bat or what?"

"We've got no choice," he answered, "Are you just going to trust that little meatball-head teeny-bop to be his only partner?  He needs someone competent, and as far as I can see, we're the only ones who qualify."

"And just let them get away?" she asked, her eyes darting back to the Joker.

"Sometimes you have to wait to bring a criminal to justice," he said evenly, stomping on the end of his skateboard to flip it up into his hands.  "And I say we wait, whether we report to Batman or not." 

"I hate waiting." she muttered.

"Deal with it, rookie." he shot back.  "From what I understand, you had to do that with the rest of your police force, and you really have to get used to dealing with it in the vigilante business."

Her dark eyes flashed at the jibe about her day job.  "You think you so great, just 'cause you some rich sugah-daddy's kid, huh?"

"Oh, I don't think I am, Lady Templar." Incubus shot back to the girl in the armor, grinning like a hyena.  "I know I am."

***

Spellbinder clicked his tongue in irritation, closing off the connection of his mindsight and opening his two natural eyes as his Third Eye closed.

The two young vigilantes were an unexpected twist, as was Fantasia acquiring his new little friend in his quest to find Zai.  Still, he was used to dealing with such wrenches in the works before, and he would deal with them again.

"Is something wrong, Spelly?" asked a quiet voice.

The mystic glanced over his shoulder, his gaze falling on the petite girl standing some several feet behind him, her unfocused eyes staring at nothing as she nervously tugged the end of her braid.

"Several things, Hex.  Several.  But nothing you need to worry about.  We can overcome such problems." he answered lightly.

"How's Fantasia?" she whispered, and he paused, half-tempted not to answer.  Hex was his understudy, despite her own other unique abilities, and she'd spent quite a bit of time with the young Scottish mage whenever the three of them had been able to get in contact.  Enough time that her sudden interest in the boy was beginning to rankle Spellbinder.  They were both his, mage and witch…but the idea of the two of them getting much closer than their own bonds to him allowed was irksome.  Irksome to the point he'd have to do something bordering on drastic if it continued.  Still, there was no reason to let the girl suspect anything, so he kept his tone airy.

"Fine, so far."  he replied, "Seems in order to find Zai as I wish him to, he's trailing the Joker."

"That's dangerous…" Hex said, her posture going rigid and her sightless eyes going wide as her tugs on her braid grew a bit more agitated.

"Not any less dangerous than Fantasia himself, Hex." Spellbinder said soothingly, opening his Third Eye again…only to get an unexpected surprise that made him grin wickedly beneath the rise of his high collar.  "Wait, my dear.  It would appear we have a guest coming to visit us…"

***

Wraith knew what was coming, almost as soon as she set foot back in the Pendragon Mansion.  Rôssamund met her at the door, tail wagging and tongue lolling, with Magpie and Banshee hot on her heels.

"Where are you two going?" the winged girl asked, raising her eyebrows at them.

"Got a job, mate," Magpie replied, "Business as usual, you know.  Meeting some bloke what calls himself 'The Raven.'"

"Interesting choice of a name." Wraith rolled her eyes.

"By the way," Banshee added, drawing close and speaking behind her hand, "Just a little f.y.i., Milo's not in a good mood."

"Is he ever?" Wraith snorted.

"Yeah, well…Curio and Zai gave his black eye from Davis a twin." Magpie muttered.

"Oh, great.  Where's Erin?  She's not calmed him down yet?"

The other two girls shrugged.  "She disappeared.  Haven't seen her for the past couple of hours."

A cold feeling started to spread like ice throughout the pit of the winged girl's stomach.  If her assumption was correct… "Great, just my luck.  Well, see you two later."

"Cheers, love."

"Catch you later, byetch." Banshee held up her fist for a quick bump, and then they were gone.  Wraith watched as they disappeared into the thick fauna surrounding the grounds of the mansion, then shook her head as she looked back to Rosie.

"What in the world am I going to do, Rose?" she murmured, scratching behind the husky's ears.  She received only a bark in response, then sighed.  "Might as well face the music…again."  And with that, she strode through the house with the dog at her heels until she could hear a certain muttering she knew all too well, coming from the drawing room.  Bracing herself, she threw open the door.

"Where've you been?" Milo growled, up in her face almost at once.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Wraith snapped.  "Get the hell up outta my face, Achilles!"

The chemist rocked back on his heels as though struck, but recovered quickly.  "I get punched out by your freaky little friends and left to sit here in pain, and find you've gone prancing off to wherever the hell you fancy!  I've got more than enough reason to get in your face, Wraith!"

"The frick is your problem, Milo?  Guen's not awake to kiss your boo-boos and there's no Erin around to give you a chill pill, so you go all out ballistic?  Where the heck is Knightly, anyway?  Banshee and Mags said she's been missing for the past few hours."

"She's not missing," he answered irritably, "If you must know, she's been with Jervis since earlier this morning."

Wraith's green eyes narrowed to dagger-glare slits as her voice became cold with a calm fury.  "Tetch?  You let her go out with Tetch.  I knew the screwball was flirting with her—told Pengers my suspicions and everything—but you actually let that freak run around loose in Gotham…with Erin?"

"Erin Knightly's an adult." Milo replied, shrugging nonchalantly.  "She can choose whom she spends her time with."

"Good freaking gawd, Milo," she sighed in exasperation, "I know you've got a freaking brain underneath that damn bowlcut, so why the flip didn't you use it?!  Erin's one of the few _sane_ people you and I have any connection with, so you just let your weird English crackhead buddy cart her off to start shoving Carroll-babble down her throat?"

"I'm not sure it's Carroll-babble he'll be shoving down her throat," he said with a lewd snicker.  Wraith opened her mouth to comment, but before either of them could say anything, the drawing room door opened again to admit three more figures, two of which charged right up to Wraith while the third hung back, glowering.

"Thought we heard you come back!" Curiosity huffed, looking winded, "Wraith, we need to talk."

"Right now?" the winged girl grumbled.

"Yes, now!" Zai said sharply, "You got a better time or something?"

"Well, you see girls—" Milo started.

"Shut up!" all three of them yelled, and he immediately cowered against the back window, dark eyes wide.  Neil Davis just shook his head at the scientist from his spot in the doorframe, looking both pitying and disappointed in the man.

"Okay then," Wraith said in a tone she was struggling to keep even, "What did you need to talk about?"

"We were looking around the house, and we found some hallway with a ballroom—"

"A ballroom?  Wait a minute, you found the ballroom?  No one is ever supposed to go in the ballroom!" Wraith murmured.

"Neil found it," Curiosity said slowly, and Neil inclined his head.

"Yeah, and there's something about it—" Zai started.

"Oh, you're freaking kidding me." Milo muttered, and all three of them turned on him at once.

"Thought we told you to shut up." Wraith growled.

"Erin's back," Milo spoke as though he'd not heard her, staring out the window in wide-eyed shock.  "And Jervis is with her."

"Well, that's something!" Zai scoffed.

"You're going to want to see this." the scientist's voice rose an octave.

"And what's so damn important about seeing Tweedledum and Tweedledumber coming back?" Curiosity snapped.

"They're in a tea cup." Milo looked back at them all, as though he'd seen a ghost.

"A what?" Wraith asked, charging for the window, Curiosity and Zai right with her.  They all three shoved Milo aside, threw open the window and poked their heads out, their jaws going slack one by one.  Sure enough, riding up the hill to the Pendragon mansion, being towed along on a dolly by a smaller vehicle, were Jervis Tetch and Erin Knightly, sitting at the lip of a enormous, blue-patterned sculpture tea cup.


	12. Forming Strategies

Police commissioner James Gordon let his hard gaze travel across the room, passing over each and every one of the officers present.  The room, previously buzzing like a hive of droning bees with the hum of individual conversations, had abruptly fallen silent, and all faces turned to meet his.  He strode to the head of the table, clasped his hands behind his back, and cleared his throat.

"I'm going to be frank with you all," he began slowly, "We're here because of the mass breakout at Arkham Asylum."

His words were met with silence, save for a steady crunching sound, and he swept the papers before him on the table up, adjusting his glasses as he examined the data.

"According to our information, the initial breakout consisted of four inmates."

The projector screen behind him had whirred down, and one of the officers placed a transparency on the projector, displaying different mug shots.

"Waylon Jones, whom we're all familiar with as "Killer Croc;"" Gordon's gaze traveled between each of the inmates as he listed them off, "Zai, on whom we have no back history save for her record after having been admitted to the asylum;  Sadie Curio, a pun on her alias, Curiosity; and this girl, Guenhivyre Pendragon, split personality called Wraith."

Though he continued to face the screen, Gordon caught movement out of the corner of his eye, and he could have sworn it was Yin sitting just a little straighter.

"Witnesses say," he continued as the transparencies were changed accordingly, "That Croc, Zai, Curio, and Pendragon were all aided by these two criminals: Vanessa Cook, thief by the name of Magpie, and Akira Marinelli, alias of Banshee, former gun of the infamous Falcone mob family.  We have so far never captured Cook or Akira Falcone, and we have no report whereabouts for the inmates.  Witnesses also claim that during this first string of escapes, the inmates in question kidnapped an orderly by the name of Adrian Davis.  So far, nothing has been reported on her whereabouts either."

Again his words were met with nothing but silence and that incessant crunching.  A vein pulsed in Gordon's temple in agitation, but he said nothing and continued.

"Then, less than twenty-four hours later, it was reported that more inmates escaped the asylum's custody," he forced himself not to look this time, to ignore the shot of the inmate who'd once been one of his finest, "Clayface.  Neil Davis.  The Penguin.  Spellbinder…and the Joker."

The air in the room grew thick with a new layer of tension, and there was a pause before he could continue.

"Same case: no whereabouts have been reported.  This is, to date, the worst breakout this city has seen."

Yet again there was that crunching noise, and this time Gordon's eyes flashed behind his glasses as he scowled toward the back of the room.

"Detective Tankinson," he forced himself to keep his voice as neutral as possible, "I would appreciate it if you were to take this meeting seriously."

"Hey!  Cash always takes secret meetings serious, Commish!" he protested.

"Then would you care to explain what the chips and salsa are for?"

"Oh, you know," came the nonchalant response, "Gotta get the blood flowin', the energy pumpin', SO WE CAN DO THIS THING!"

Several of the other officers and detectives present just groaned, and Gordon pinched the bridge of his nose, reminding himself to merely pass over Tankinson's misconduct for the time being.  After all, the kid had been rambling about some giant tea cup being stolen when he'd been called back in.  Now though, the GCPD had a lot more on their plates to worry about.

"Somebody," he said slowly, "Needs to report up to Arkham and speak with Dr. Strange.  So far his responses to the press have been nothing short of dodgy.  He might just be stressed from being recently elevated to the job and then having this happen, but I find it hard to believe that he can just so nonchalantly gloss things over if that's the case.  So I'll need someone to go up there and ask him a few questions."

"I'll go, sir."

This time Gordon frowned to a seat on his left, filled by the mass of Chief Angel Rojas, who was watching him intently.  He wanted to simply nod, give his approval.  With as much that was going on, he needed all the volunteers he could get.  But his instinct as an officer battled that, insisting the idea would be a bad one.  Rojas had reacted poorly when he'd been denied his request for a tactical squad, indicating he was probably taking this whole business a little too seriously.  And the last thing that would help the force was Rojas using his brand of interrogation on Hugo Strange.

Still, given the way he'd been taking everything it was probably safer than letting him operate in the field.

"Very well, Rojas.  But tomorrow, not tonight." Gordon sighed.  The heavier man nodded once, and that was that.

"Commissioner," said another voice from further back in the room, "What can I do?"

He glanced toward the screen where Ellen Yin was watching from the video conference in her hospital room, and he could have sworn he saw Tankinson turn to watch her as well.  Yin was a fast healer, but she was still heavily bandaged and the doctors had refused her requests to be admitted from the hospital.  Still, she was a stubborn woman, and after a lot of argument, haranguing, and pleading, she'd been allowed her laptop so she could continue working.  Gordon knew it probably chafed her to be reduced to desk work, but she seemed to be handling it well for the time being.  Certainly she was eager to help, sitting upright and bright-eyed, awaiting orders.

"Detective, I want you to see if you can find any possible connections between the escaped patients and places they may have taken to as bolt-holes.  Look up family, friends, past jobs, frequent haunts, anything and everything." he replied.  "We need to find out where they've all gone if we're to start rounding them up."

A sad droop to her eyes was the only indication that she was disappointed she couldn't do more, but she hid it well and merely nodded.  Gordon let out a silent sigh of relief.  At least she wouldn't go doing anything stupid.

"All units bulletin!" the radio scanner on an adjacent table suddenly screamed, drawing everyone's attention.  "This is Officer Chase Trent!  We've just received word Edward Nygma has also escaped from Arkham!  He's said to have been seen in The Narrows!  Heading in that direction, taking East and Stroop!  Request back-up!"

The commissioner groaned.

_Great,_ he thought wearily, _This night just keeps getting better and better._  
  
"Tankinson." he murmured.

"I'm ready, chief!" the detective answered, donning his sunglasses.

"Report as back-up to Officer Trent and capture The Riddler…and don't do anything too hasty, detective." he groaned.

"Hey, Cash is as Cash does, sir." Tankinson puffed out his chest before darting out the door.  Yin, having followed his progress, sighed and sat back in her hospital bed, her face becoming a mask of worry.

***

He couldn't see Yin from where he was angled, but judging from the way Gordon averted his eyes from the screen, he guessed she looked upset.

Over Cash Tankinson?

If anything, he thought she had had feelings for Ethan Bennett…

"You know, some of us would like to have snazzy little eavesdropping spy tools, too!" said an insistent voice.

Batman glared over at Batgirl, who placed her hands indignantly on her hips, before glancing back to the window, focusing on the rest of the orders the commissioner was doling out.

"What, a daughter can't take an interest in her father's work?" she demanded.

"You learn plenty as Barbara Gordon." he shot back.  "She can go places and hear things Batgirl can't."

"So that's a no." she pouted.  "I thought we were going to be partners!"

He shot her another glare.  Though he admired her spirit and determination, Barbara was still too young to be taking this completely seriously.  No matter how much she wanted to insist that she was an adult and perfectly capable of helping, she was still too inexperienced and foolhardy, nor did she even seem to grasp the concept of the danger she was running into the thick of.

"Look, you don't have to like it, but you need help!" she pressed on.

"The kid's right, Bats." said another voice.  He swung around, immediately on guard.  He hadn't heard anyone behind them, and few people had ever been able to sneak up on him before!  Trust Batgirl to be running her mouth just loudly enough to mask all indications someone else had come onto the roof.

Two figures were approaching them, one male and one female.  The man was just a few years younger than Bruce Wayne, with pale skin, dark hair spiked up and back, and a crooked, cheeky grin.  A domino mask hid his eyes from view, and he wore mostly black leather and a fishnet shirt and gloves.  A length of chain was coiled around his waist, a spade-like spike hanging off the end of it, and he carried in his hand a…pimp cane?

"You can't handle all those crazies alone, now can ya?" he asked.

"And you are?"

"Call me Incubus.  Think of me as your, ah…daytime shift replacement."

"Incubus." he murmured, a light going off in his head.  "You collared Poison Ivy while we took down Joker during his rampage with Bane's Venom.  Not many people are capable of resisting her poisonous spores.  I'm impressed…and curious."

"Let's just say you have your special talents, Bats…and I've got mine."

"Whoa, wait, what?!" Batgirl yelped, "Time out!  You're telling me that Ivy was out there, running free while we took out Joker?!"

Batman ignored her, turning to look at the other figure.  "And who's your partner?"

The woman took a step closer.  She too, wore a mask over her dark-skinned features, but he could tell almost right away who she was.  Shakia Johnson, an officer from one of Gordon's units, put on probation last month after dealing a raw beating to Ragdoll, whom she'd been taking in to Arkham.  She carried on her hip a heavy broadsword, and wore a medieval suit of chainmail armor with a white overtunic, extolled with a blood-red cross that stood out starkly in the moonlight.

Batman frowned to himself; he knew that symbol.  It had been originally designed in the 1100's, during King Richard the Lionheart's Holy Crusades to reclaim Jerusalem.  While many of Richard's knights had worn his symbol, the lion rampant, his most fierce warriors and religious fighters had been adorned with that cross.  They were known by many names, one of the more common being the Order of the Cruciform Sword, or the Protectors of the Grail.  But they had one universal name that marked them from everyone the world over.

"The Order of the Knights Templar?" he asked.

"Call me Lady Templar." Shakia intoned with a nod of her head.  "I too, wish to see justice brought to the city."

Warning bells went off in the Dark Knight's mind.  The Knights Templar had been religious fanatics that had terrified even the most stalwart of the Saracen warriors with their unyielding desire to reclaim the holy land.  And if Lady Templar was anything like the knights she chose to model herself after, her sense of justice was something to worry about.

"Um, hello?!  Everyone just forgetting about the plucky favorite sidekick?" Batgirl grumbled in exasperation.

"Hey, I included you at the start of the conversation, didn't I?" Incubus snapped, frowning at her.  "You ought to learn to mind your manners a little more, kid."

" _Kid_?!" she spluttered indignantly, falling short when Batman placed a hand on her shoulder.

"He's right." he rumbled before turning to Incubus.  "I'm not one to take help, but I won't be able to help the police catch all these criminals alone.  I'm willing to listen to any suggestions you have to make, but not here.  We have to move some place else."

Incubus inclined his head.  "Fair enough."  And with that, he and Lady Templar leapt onto the nearest roof, preparing to head away.  Batgirl turned and gave the Dark Knight a long look.

"What's with you?  You never ask for help!  Not even when people offer it." she demanded, furious.

"I never said I wanted help," he replied coldly, "But I am at least willing to listen.  The police need all the assistance they can get, and it would be stupid to assume I'm the only one who can help."

"Whatever!" she groaned, leaping after their two mysterious new acquaintances.  Batman scowled, prepared to follow…when something caught his eye.  For a split second he could have sworn he'd seen a misshapen figure up by the briefing room window, watching as Gordon dismissed the officers.  But when he blinked, all he saw was one of the police at ground level, patrolling the perimeter.  He paused, trying to process it, and his mind came to a conclusion that made him shake his head.

No, Ethan wouldn't think to come here after breaking out of Arkham.  Insane or not, Bruce knew his friend wasn't that stupid.  Clayface was practically putting himself in police hands if he'd thought to come poking around, whatever his motives may be.  No, it couldn't have been him.  Bruce was just imagining things, that was it.

That had to be it.

***

"A job well done, my young feline friend." Ra's Al Ghul said smoothly, taking the scroll from Cheshire with a disarming smile.  The thief kept his comments to himself.  He'd had a difficult enough time retrieving the scroll in question from Spellbinder, even with Hex there, and he'd returned to the office in Arkham to find Ra's and a young woman drawing a pentagram on the floor, lining candles up to each of its points.  Strange and his kid, Gawain, were seated at the desk, watching with mild polite interest.

Well, at least Ra's hadn't figured out who he was…yet.   That was a plus.  Perhaps the only one of the night.  Slightly annoyed with the under-appreciation he was getting and more than a little ruffled at having to confront Spellbinder, Cheshire leaned back against a wall, crossing his arms and preparing to watch.

"Are you just going to stand there the whole time?" the young woman demanded.  Chesh considered her.  She was pretty hot, all things considered, but she gave off the air of a daddy's girl, used to getting her way, who hadn't totally grown up and was used to ordering people around and having them obey her.  He wasn't sure if he found that annoying or not.  In response, he gave a slight shrug.

"He's fine, Talia," Ra's said dismissively, "Leave him be.  He can watch if he so wishes."

Talia threw him a glare, to which he answered with a grin, then set about lighting the candles while Ra's moved to the head of the pentagram, taking care to avoid stepping on the chalk lines.

"Have you prepared the chalice, my daughter?" Ra's asked calmly, and suddenly she was looking around frantically.

"Where is it, I thought I had it here…" she murmured.

"Here it is." Gawain piped up.  Cheshire watched as the kid approached Ra's, pouring a liquid into a basin that resembled a very large goblet.  Talia turned and glared fiercely at the boy, but he ignored her, throwing a dishtowel over his shoulder.

"It was dirty.  Thought it might go better if you had a completely clean one." he explained, and Ra's face lit up with a warm smile.

"Thank you, Gawain.  Clever thinking on your part," he remarked over the very loud gnashing of Talia's teeth.  A small smile worked its way onto Hugo Strange's face as his son beamed and returned to sit with him at the desk.

"So what kind of demon are you going to summon?" Gawain asked, his calm façade belied by the excitement in his voice.

"If this is the right scroll—" Ra's said, his eyes flicking briefly to Cheshire, who felt the sudden need to squirm uncomfortably,  "—And all goes according to plan, it should be a very powerful chaos demon, hopefully a lieutenant to one of the demon-gods.  Now stand back, and keep quiet!"

Unrolling the scroll, Ra's drew a strange, powdery substance from within his robes and flung it into the pentagram.  It hung in the air before falling, and Ra's passed his hand over the scroll before his voice began to rise in a deep chant, murmuring and calling words Cheshire couldn't understand.  The scroll began to glow, and one by one, the characters penned so carefully to the parchment rose up off it and began to float toward the center of the pentagram, where they gathered around each other and danced like a small zephyr, gathering up the strange powder.  Ra's's chanting grew ever deeper, and he poured the liquid from the chalice into a stone basin at his feet.  Chesh wondered for a moment what would happen if any of the liquid were to splash onto the chalk lines, and for a brief second, it looked like all of it would slosh over the side of the basin, but the liquid merely danced in place, threatening to leave the basin but never doing so.  As the chant ended, more characters floated off the scroll and landed gently in the water, setting it alight with an eerie green glow.  Suddenly the zephyr in the middle of the pentagram picked up speed, letting out a hair-raising note of discorded music, and Ra's froze, his eyes going wide with shock.

"No…no…that's not supposed to happen…" he murmured.

"Something wrong, Mr. Al Ghul?" Strange asked politely, unconcerned.

More discorded music rose from the zephyr, which compacted upon itself, and the liquid suddenly flew from the basin to meet it, blinding them all with a sudden flash of light.  Cheshire gritted his teeth, rubbing his eyes and trying to blink the spots out.  When he finally managed to do so, he looked around to find everyone else following suit, though not much about the room seemed different.

Except now there was a figure standing in the middle of the pentagram.

Blinking, Cheshire scrutinized the newcomer.  The thief had once visited a mansion full of a series of paintings about a young Persian sorcerer, believed to have existed back in the fifth century.  In most, if not all, of the paintings with the Persian, a monster had been depicted, standing watch over the young man, like some odd bodyguard.  Modern artists had seen the monster and used it to inspire one of the latest monster additions to the newest edition of Dungeons and Dragons.  These monsters were called dolgaunts, and so Chesh instantly decided to dub this figure one, though he more closely resembled the monster from the paintings.

"What in the name of the…" the monster murmured, looking around at them all.  It glanced down where the dust and liquid slopped at its feet and sneered, moving outside of the pentagram, something Chesh was sure wasn't supposed to happen.  "A demon summoning ritual?  Couldn't you have bothered to actually summon a demon for that?"

Coughing, still recovering from the blinding flash of light, Ra's blinked at him, his jaw going slack.

"No…" his voice was hoarse and brimming with disbelief, "This is all wrong…I was supposed to have a scroll to summon a servant of the demon-gods…you're supposed to be answering me, submitting to my will.  You shouldn't be able to step outside the summoning circle!"

"Again, couldn't you have bothered to actually summon a demon for that?" the monster made an exaggerated motion with its face that would have been a rolling of the eyes, "What, didn't you read the fine print on the scroll before you started using it?  Good grief!  Here I am, cozying up to a selkie who's not running away like she usually does, trying to convince her to loosen that corset _just a little_ , and what happens?  Some brain-dead, waxy-eared, slack-jawed Fu Manchu sorcerer has to go and read off the WRONG summoning scroll!"

"Most fascinating." Strange remarked, though he went largely ignored as the monster seized Ra's by the collar of his robes and hefted him off his feet.  Talia cried out for her father, but Ra's motioned for her to stay back as the monster leaned into his face and bared all his needle-sharp teeth in a sneer.

"Give Calibhaan one good reason," the monster growled, "To not be upset about how you completely ruined his day, and you might just live to see morning."


	13. Multiple Changes and A Mulberry Floor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone's gonna die and it ain't gonna be pretty. You've been warned.

"And you just decided to skip away to God-knows-where with this yahoo and not tell anyone?"  Wraith hissed, her furious face only a foot away from Erin's.  She'd confronted her the second Erin had stepped back in the door with Jervis, and it was quickly looking as though things were going to get rather ugly.

"I'm no yahoo." Jervis huffed, crossing his arms indignantly.  "That's an American flaw."

"Watch it, weirdo." Curiosity growled at him, "You're walking a thin line."

"You're not the boss of me, Pendragon!" Erin snapped, planting her fists on her hips.  Wraith's eyes widened slightly, the only sign of shock at Erin's use of her surname.

"I think we've got a bigger problem on our hands right now." Zai spoke up abruptly, giving a pointed nod at the door.  "Like what the hell we're going to do about that stupid tea cup."

"Good point." Wraith and Curiosity agreed.

"You'll not be doing anything with it," Jervis said, thrusting his chin out and squaring his jaw stubbornly, "I appropriated, thereby it is mine, and my queen's."

"Your queen?!" The three girls spluttered, their heads whipping over to stare at Erin, who at least had the decency to blush and avert her gaze to the floor in embarrassment. Zai pinched the bridge of her nose, Curiosity made a gagging noise, and Wraith looked on the verge of an eruption worthy of Mount Vesuvius, when Milo abruptly placed himself between the five of them.

"If I may interrupt?" he said in overly sweet tones, and when he was met with nothing but glares on all sides, he continued, "While I can see Tetch's point, the girls have a valid argument too.  We can't just let a giant tea cup sit in front of the Pendragon Mansion.  If the cops come looking for it, it's going to stick out like a sore thumb, and the second they come to investigate, we're all getting locked in the loony bin.  Me, I'm not exactly keen on the idea.  So either way, the teacup has gotta go."

For half a moment, Jervis appeared to be on the verge of arguing, but finally he nodded.

"You have a point of wisdom, Achilles.  I'll be needing to establish my own base of operations here in Gotham in any event, so I should move it." he sighed, rubbing the temples of his blonde head.

"Note if we'd said it, he'd have written the whole thing off as 'preposterous.'" Wraith muttered out of the corner of her mouth to her two friends, who nodded and rolled their eyes.  Immediately Jervis glared at them, and Milo coughed loudly.

"Wraith, I think I shall require Guenhivyre's assistance in checking on Miss Adrian Davis." he said pointedly.

"What?  I thought you just—"

"I require her assistance." Milo's voice took on that cold tone once more, and Wraith backed down, shut her mouth, then turned on her heel and started down the hall.  Zai and Curiosity joined her side in seconds, no doubt having their own interest in Adrian's condition, and Milo brought up the rear.  They passed the study, Neil emerging from the door as they passed, golden eyes glinting slightly.

"You're checking on Addy?" he asked softly.

"I'm uncertain how her progression goes," Milo saved the girl the trouble of answering, "And since Guenhivyre is the most familiar with the effects of my…techniques, she is going to assist me."

"We wanna see too." Zai threw in at Neil's look.

"This is going to be interesting…" Curiosity said with a dark chuckle.

Neil began to stride alongside them, a dangerous spark in his eye.  "But going in there among the demons…you're going to need protection."

"I'll be fine as long as…Addy is strapped down." Wraith remarked.  "Plus, we've always got Rosie."  She let out a sharp whistle, and within moments the husky reappeared, easily closing the distance until she was trotting happily at her owner's side.  Neil however, didn't appear convinced.

"You're going to need me." he said stoutly, "You don't know how to deal with the abomination that wears my sister's skin."

At this, Milo shot a look to Wraith that meant he plainly didn't want Neil in there causing more trouble, and Wraith stopped in her tracks, turning to face Neil and bringing their little procession to a halt.

"Are you in doubt of my own holy abilities, Mr. Davis?" she asked simply, raising an eyebrow curiously.

"No, of course not!" he amended quickly, his eyes widening slightly.  "I never meant such a thing.  I simply feel it would be better if I were able to help."

Wraith offered him a rare, genuine smile and reached out, giving his shoulder a friendly squeeze.  "Dear Neil, I know your intentions are pure and your heart is in the right place.  However, I fear the demon will already be agitated at my presence; if you are there, I think it would worsen the situation.  But there are ways around that.  If you would stand outside the door and perhaps wait at the ready, should I yell for you—"

His face fell a bit, but he nodded nonetheless.  "I see the wisdom in your plan, O Holy Lady.  It appears there is much I have to learn."

"Your humility shall serve you well, Mr. Davis.  Take comfort in it and be blessed!" the winged girl said in dramatic tones, and they started off once more, Curiosity and Zai once again exchanging long-suffering looks.

***

When Adrian came to, the first thing she perceived was green.

_Oh thank God, I've died and gone to heaven.  
_  
But when her vision cleared, she let out a groan.

"Ya doin' okay?"

"I _was_." she grumbled.

"Ya don't gotta talk to me like that, Davis!" Croc snapped.  "I'm stayin' here, keepin' an eye on ya, worryin' about ya, the least ya c'n do is show a little appreciation."

She wasn't sure whether she was having a moment of clarity or whether the mutant-making whatever she'd been injected with had a hand in her sudden recollection, but she felt the need to voice it.

"Don't you have a girlfriend?"

At once, Croc drew back, looking a little startled and more than embarrassed.  "Dunno what yer talkin' about…" he mumbled.

"You escaped Arkham with someone last time…a woman…wasn't she a werewolf?  Gabe said she was a werewolf…" Adrian asked, and the reptile-man averted his eyes quickly.

"Mebbe."

"What was her name…?"

"Does it mattah?"

"Maybe it does." Adrian growled, glaring at him.  "Don't you think she may be crushed if she finds out about you volunteering for Milo's attempt to play God?"

He didn't answer, but cast his eyes to the floor, and Adrian half-worried she would need to say more, but was ultimately saved the trouble by the arrival of the scientist in question.  Not surprisingly, Zai and Curiosity were right behind him, probably expecting a show to tickle their sadistic funny bones.  Wraith—or was it Guen?—brought up the rear, striding up to her directly.

"Ahh, good!  You're awake," Milo said in a pleasant tone, as though expecting a delightful chat about something as mundane as the weather, "So tell me: how do you feel?"

"Like crap." Adrian replied.

"She doesn't look much better." Curiosity spoke to Zai in a carrying whisper, and Adrian shot the two of them her best glare.

"I see little change in her overall physical appearance." Milo stated boldly, his cold, professional manner coming back into place.  "Guenhivyre?"

It was just then the orderly noticed the winged girl scrutinizing her carefully, and at once something in her relaxed.  She wasn't sure what it was, but it was hard to feel tense or angry around the mutant's "Guen" personality.  Silently, Adrian threw God a quick prayer that nothing had changed, that the experiment had somehow gone wrong, and that Guen wouldn't find anything.  But the green eyes surveying her narrowed, going soft with sympathy as Guen's mouth fell into a frown.

"The area around your eyes is getting darker." she said softly.

"Lack of sleep?" Adrian suggested hopefully.

"And right here," Guen murmured, touching just below Adrian's eye cavity, "This darker patch isn't skin.  That's scales.  Not a whole lot of them, but they're there.  And your nails.  They're a fraction longer, and they're starting to grow into points."

"Excellent!" the look of glee on Milo's face had Adrian wishing for the opportunity to get another good swing at him.

"You're a sick man, Achilles." Guen said coldly, scowling right along with Adrian.

"You flatter me."

"Aww, that's it?" Zai grumbled.  "No lizard tail, no screaming, no biting Dr. Bowlcut?"

"HEY!"

"This is a major bummer." Curiosity pouted.  "What do you say we go find Neil and cook up a plan to get rid of the dingy redhead?"

"Sounds good to me."

And with that, the two girls skipped out before Milo could work up a proper rant at being labeled for his haircut.  Fuming, he turned to Croc, looking to be on the verge of a temper tantrum.

"And why the hell are you so quiet?" he demanded.

Croc's yellow animal eyes flicked to Adrian's for a second before looking away.

"It's nothin'." he answered, turning and striding from the room.

"PEOPLE!" Milo groaned.  "I hate people!"

"That makes two of us!" Adrian snapped, receiving a fierce glare in response.

"Alright, Miss Davis.  You've just upped the time of your next injection.  Guenhivyre, keep her from squirming."  And with that, he turned and started to rummage through the cabinets.  In turn, Guen put a gentle hand on Adrian's shoulder, her green eyes remorseful.

"I don't think any number of apologies will make up for what's being done to you." she murmured.

"Why don't you stop him…?  I thought he listened to you." Adrian whispered, but Guen was already shaking her head.

"I wish I had that power.  But I can no more refuse his orders than I can alter the phases of the moon." she murmured.

"You say that like you have no choice in the matter."

"I don't."

***

Taking a run up to Arkham to interrogate Strange wasn't the first thing Rojas would have asked to be assigned with, but it certainly was the second.  After all, given how often the inmates had started escaping after Strange took over was a bit alarming, and Rojas was certain something fishy was going on with the man.  Plus, with all the information that junior officer had tracked down for him…It simply had to be done.  He could already envision the look on the shrink's face when faced with the threat of being taken in to headquarters.

"You may be fooling the press and the public, Strange," the police officer muttered as he drove, taking his turns a bit sharper than normal, "But you ain't fooling Chief Angel Rojas."

And on he drove, unaware that each traffic light he passed brought him closer and closer to his doom…

***

There was one major advantage in being the son of Hugo Strange, and that meant Gawain was able to go wherever he so pleased in the asylum, and the orderlies and guards had to give him the same respect his dad was given.  It wasn't as though he abused the power, however; Gawain knew better than to go into cells and bother the patients.  He was starting to find that people whose minds were sick often had special needs, and a lot of them didn't like being surprised.

Heaven forbid he should make work harder for his dad!

Still, he got tired of being holed up in the office all the afternoon while his dad worked or talked with Mr. Ra's, so it was out of sheer boredom that he found his way down to the kitchens.  None of the staff there were pleased at his presence, but none of them said anything to him, so he wandered further in, watching them 'cook.'  What he found was sheer disappointment and a bit of an insult to his chef's artistic soul.

"No _wonder_ the Joker hates macaroni…" he muttered out loud, receiving more than one dirty look from the kitchen staff.

"Poo," murmured a voice somewhere further away, "There's nothing that looks even remotely appetizing in here."

More than a little surprised, Gawain turned and looked around the kitchen, until he saw something move in the rafters above in one of the far corners.  Silently, checking to make sure none of the staff was watching, he moved to the corner, his bright green eyes searching the rafters until they found the telltale black pools and the oversized grin.

"Are you hungry?" the boy asked, to which the monster only grinned wider.

"Cali is always hungry, little demon." came the hissing whisper.  "It's just a matter of finding the right humans to feed me."

It was a morbid turn of phrase, but the child's mind was more macabre still that he understood it at once.

"I'm guessing everyone here smells too much like the macaroni?"

Calibhaan shook his head, his hair tendrils stirring lazily.  "They're all string beans." he grumped.  "Barely more than skin and bones.  Even vultures wouldn't be able to get a decent bite out of them!  Cali needs more sustenance than that!"

"You complain a lot." Gawain remarked.

"So would you, if you were ripped from your home and found yourself in a dingy cesspool without even a respectable buffet!" Calibhaan snapped, his goblin-like ears twitching in irritation.  A long silence followed, as an idea slowly started to take root in the child's gruesome mind.

"What if I cooked for you?" he suggested innocently.

The monster blinked his empty sockets, then tilted his head.

"What, you mean cooked _people_?  For me?"

Gawain nodded.

"That's the most sick, disgusting, and downright vile thing I've ever heard come out of a child's mouth!" Calibhaan gasped.  "I love it!  Your idea intrigues me, and I wish to learn more!"

Before Gawain could respond, however, another voice piped up.

"Sounds great and all.  And hey, if you need a body with more meat on it to get you started, I saw one on his way here."

Gawain turned, seeing the cocky, smart-mouthed thief he'd poisoned a couple of days previously standing right behind him.  The boy frowned.  He'd not heard Cheshire sneak up behind him, and it was downright irritating.  He'd have to ask Mr. Ra's how to listen for that sort of thing.

"What are you talking about?" he demanded, eyes narrowing.

"Chief Angel Rojas of the Gotham Police," Cheshire answered, raising an eyebrow, "He's already on his way to your dad's office, kid.  Plans on questioning him about all the patients that have escaped.  Seems to think your dad helped them escape."

Fury like volcano on the verge of erupting boiled in Gawain, and his face twisted hideously in his anger.

"That's not my dad's fault." he growled.

"He's got a gun," Cheshire added absentmindedly, as though he'd not heard him.

Snarling softly, Gawain scanned the kitchen, until he found what he was looking for.  It caught his eye, glinting on a rusty old nail sticking out of the wall.  Snatching up a spare, stained apron as he moved, he strode across the kitchen directly to the wall, turning away the looks of the staff with a fierce glare, and lifted the knife from its nail.  It had been sharpened recently, and it shone to perfection, the edges of the blade as smooth as though it had been made only the day previous.  He admired the craftsmanship only a second longer before selecting a nearby meat cleaver as well.  Balancing the weight of the two, one in each hand, he stomped back and thrust them toward Calibhaan and Cheshire, both of whom stared in surprise.

"Hold these a second." the child snarled, and they each took one in shock, watching as Gawain donned the apron and smoothed down its front.  "Perfect."  He snatched the utensils back, set them carefully in the front pockets of the apron and strode from the kitchen.  None of the kitchen staff seemed to notice his departure, and none of the orderlies or guards in the halls gave him a second glance, despite the new addition to his wardrobe.  If the son of the asylum's head shrink wanted to wear an apron out of the blue, they felt no grounds to question it.  Satisfied in his imperviousness, Gawain chose the fastest route back to his father's office, taking care in how he strode so as not to impale himself on his newly acquired implements.

"No one," he murmured, "Threatens my dad."

He rounded a corner and saw Mr. Ra's's daughter, Miss Talia, laughing and giggling with some of the guards, twirling her hair like it was made of ribbons.  She shot him a quick, dirty look of irritation, and he glared daggers back, wishing he had the time to chop off some of her stupid hair and gag her with it.  She was clearly as spoiled and snobby as some of the kids in his class at school, and she'd been rude and condescending since she and her dad had arrived.

Gawain decided it was therefore going to be his personal goal to watch her die.

But that was something that would have to wait until later.  Right now, his dad needed his help.

He kept going until he reached the office door, and finding it slightly ajar, he pushed it in slowly, so as not to make a sound.

A man about the size of a baby elephant dressed in a police uniform was pacing in front of Dr. Strange's desk, his posture threatening and tense.  His eyes didn't leave Hugo Strange once as he spoke, and he was talking a lot.

"And what about the abduction of your orderly, Professor Strange?" he was saying, "A bunch of the inmates get away, and they just take an orderly with them?  I wasn't born yesterday!  Any other shrink in your position would have filed a report about the abduction with the police right away."

"Do you know that for a fact, or are you merely speculating?" Strange asked pleasantly, tilting his head to the side.

"That's not the point!" the cop yelled, halting in mid-pace to slam his hands down on the front of the desk.  "You've had nine dangerous, mentally disturbed patients break out of here in the course of forty-eight hours, taking an orderly with them, aided by at least two more criminals we can identify, and almost an entire week has passed since!"  He leaned in close, his mustache quivering angrily as a vein pulsed in his temple, his face slowly turning a furious shade of red.  "But strangely enough, you don't seem to even be concerned enough to tell Gotham PD directly.  You've been letting a bunch of nosy press agents do all the work for you."

Strange only smiled.

"So you tell me," Rojas growled, "What exactly my department is supposed to make of that?"

"You seem a bit tense, Chief Rojas.  Could it possibly be stemming from a prior irritation at work?" Strange asked, steepling his fingers.

"Oh, no you don't, Mr. Happy!" the cop snapped, wagging a finger in Strange's face.  "That Zen, chatty, analyzing shrink crap doesn't work with me!"

"Perhaps you were denied a request of some sort and you're letting that aggression surface due to being sent to interrogate me." the psychiatrist remarked, leaning back in his chair.  "Yes, that _does_ seem to fit."  He moved his head just a fraction, and Gawain slipped further in, keeping to the back of the room and stepping carefully so as not to make a sound.  His dad's motions were subtle, but he was getting better at detecting them here and there.

"SHUT YOUR DAMN MOUTH!" Rojas roared, swinging his fist wildly and knocking several things off Strange's desk.  Angrily, Gawain took a step forward, intending to give the policeman a piece of his mind, when a hand grabbed his shoulder and halted him.  Surprised, he looked around and saw Ra's staring down at him, bringing a finger up to his lips to indicate silence.  Behind Ra's, a number of his black-clad men slowly moved forward, so silent they could have been mistaken for ghosts.  Certainly, Rojas didn't detect them until they were right upon him, and even then the struggle was brief.  In a matter of seconds, the obese cop was tightly bound to one of the spare chairs, a gag stuffed in his mouth to muffle his screams of rage.

"You have my thanks, Mr. Al Ghul." Strange said calmly, his eyebrows raising.  "I wasn't aware you came back to the office."

"MMMMRMMPH!  MMMRRRRRMPH!" Rojas screamed behind the gag.

"I've been watching for a time." Ra's replied, striding boldly over to them all, turning to face Rojas directly.  "And I must say, I don't appreciate seeing threats made to my business partners.  It complicates operations invariably.  Gentlemen, kill him."

As one, each of the ninja raised a weapon.

"No."

Everyone paused, and even Rojas stopped shrieking behind his gag for a moment as Gawain came toward them, his eyes blazing.

"He's mine." the child snarled.

"Mmmrrrmmph?!?!"

"Very well.  You need the practice." Ra's conceded, making a gesture at his guards to back down.

"Mmrrmmph!"

"Nobody.  Talks.  To my dad that way.  You were saying, Dad?" Gawain said, locking his gaze onto Rojas's fat fingers as he pulled the unserrated knife from his apron.  The cop's beady dark eyes found the knife at once and he went still, the color draining from his face as he broke into a sweat.

"Thank you, Gawain." Strange went on cheerfully.  "Working in law enforcement is no easy task, Chief Rojas.  You should be commended for having served Gotham for so long."

Gawain raised the knife, then brought it down quickly with a SHUNK!, taking a pinkie with it in the process.  The screams started up behind the gag again.

"But really, you should have looked into anger management at a younger age.  I daresay this upsetting tendency toward aggression and lack of control over your temper probably began at home."

SHUNK!  A ring finger.

"Perhaps your father was an alcoholic?"

SHUNK! A middle finger.

"It only stands to reason.  Perhaps he was in and out of jail often due to his drinking problem.  That would explain your obsession with making certain inmates stay confined."

SHUNK!  An index finger.

"But that's not all there is to it, is it?"

SHUNK! A thumb.  Blood was pouring freely as Rojas continued his muffled shrieks, staining the wood of the chair, trickling down toward the mulberry carpet.  Gawain strode around the back of the chair to the other hand, as calm as if he were merely coloring, and when he caught Rojas's eye, the cop shook his head desperately, tears pouring down his rotund cheeks.  But no pity showed on the child's face as he drew the meat cleaver from his apron pocket and slowly raised it to eye level.

"For all that your father was probably an alcoholic, your mother certainly wasn't a model example, was she?  No, I would hazard a guess that she came down on you somewhat harshly.  She did her best to enforce order in the household that your father failed to accomplish, but often her expectations were high, impossibly so in some instances, and there were unpleasant consequences if they weren't met."

The meat cleaver fell.

THUNK!

Quishh!

Rojas's other hand joined his rapidly cooling digits on the floor, the blood disappearing quickly into the mulberry color of the carpet as he began to wail in agony.

"College was probably a relief for you, wasn't it?" Strange went on, the smile on his face slowly growing.  "Certainly it gave you a chance to treat yourself a bit better.  Your girth is a pointed indication of that.  But I doubt that somehow made landing a job in law enforcement any easier.  In fact, it probably made it a bit more difficult, didn't it?"

Gawain stowed away the meat cleaver and brought the knife down, carving a deep, diagonal slash across Rojas's stomach, the blood gushing and spraying like a fountain, splattering the front of the apron and flecking onto the child's face.  The screams died down to sobs.

"All this, compounded, one thing upon the other, year after year…Well, it's no wonder you have so much aggression that you take out on everyone.  But I imagine it finally caught up to you, didn't it, Chief Rojas?  After all, there's never any accounting for the opinions and decisions of those above you."

In one swift motion, Gawain sprang onto Rojas, bracing one foot on the cop's knee, the other on his bleeding stomach, and raised the knife above his head.

"All in all," Strange said cheerily, "I think our session today has gone rather well, don't you?"

And Gawain's knife hand fell, driving deep into the flesh of Rojas's neck.


	14. Tails Being Tailed

There were moments when Xack got to thinking that Joker was leading them on a wild goose chase.  The clown wasn't stupid; he probably knew for a fact that she and Fantasia were tailing him.  But if he did, then why hadn't he confronted them already?  Why did he continue to string them along?  She shook her head, chasing the doubts away.  There was no way he knew.  He couldn't know and just resist the opportunity to turn on them.  It just wasn't possible.

They had just begun tracking him through Gotham Park, taking care to duck behind trees for cover, when Fantasia suddenly stopped, kneeling down and clutching at his chest.  Xack looked at him in alarm, wanting to reach out and help him up, but hesitant to make contact with him at the same time.

"Are you okay?" she murmured.

"Aye, lass," he wheezed, "Jus' feelin' a bit worse fer the wear…havenae eaten nothin' in a while, an' it's takin' a toll on me…"

Xack looked about quickly.  Weren't there always vendors or something strolling around the park?  But a glance back down the path showed Joker getting further away, still giggling maniacally, and her mind was torn with indecision.  She wanted to help Fantasia—he'd been helping her, after all—but they just couldn't let the Clown Prince Of Crime get away!  It hadn't occurred to her that she could just leave, that she could go home and forget this was happening at all; she knew it was an option, somewhere at the back of her mind, but a part of her refused to just let it happen.  Whatever he was doing, Joker had to be stopped.

As if he could sense her indecision, Fantasia shakily got to his feet, pulling his scarf down and revealing a young, pretty-boy face that offered her a hesitant smile.

"Donna worry aboot me none, gixie," he said, "We've got us a bigger fish tae fry, neh?"

"Yes, but…" she began hesitantly, when something caught her eye.  Something else was moving and ducking behind trees, a good distance behind them.  Xack's heartbeat sped up, and she pointed with a shaking hand at the tree in question.  Fantasia's dark eyes widened, and he followed her line of sight before scowling angrily.  Before she could stop him, he stormed over to the tree.  For a brief moment, he struggled with something, and the next he was marching back to her, toting along a swearing, flailing—

"Penguin?" Xack gasped, taking a step backward.  Why was _he_ here?!  This was not good, not good at all!

"Put me down, you crazy cross-dresser!  Let go!"

Fantasia glowered and gave Penguin a rather violent shake.  "Mayhap iffin ye spill aboot why yer followin' us, I will." he snapped darkly.

"I-I'm not sure that's such a good idea…" Xack murmured, taking another step back and hugging her arms tightly.  Her instincts were screaming at her to run, but a greater sense of confidence held her in place.  So far, Fantasia had kept them both out of trouble, and despite his apparent frailty, Xack had a feeling that he'd be more than a match for the Penguin.

The rogue in question stopped struggling for a moment, making a sound of confusion, and turned his blue eyes on her.

"Xack?" he squawked in surprise.  "Xack Hathaway?  It's _you_ following Joker around with this redneck in a dress?"

At this, Fantasia tossed Penguin a fraction higher in the air and caught him again by the collar, so they were at eye level.  "I'm Scottish, ye fat bird.  An' donna forget it."  he whispered softly.  Xack was expecting Penguin to kick his way free, like he normally did, but something in the intensity of Fantasia's presence must have frightened Penguin, because he immediately quieted down.

"Y-yeah sure…um…sir." he whimpered.  "I uh…I was following you because you were following Joker…"

"Why follow us?" Xack asked, her brow furrowing in suspicion, "Why not just follow Joker?  Why not ask to go with him, if the two of you can get along?"

"I saw you guys acting all weird first," he answered, his head swiveling around to face her, "I was already heading out on business of my own, and noticed you."

A soft buzzing started in the back of Xack's ear, and she fought to keep the corners of her mouth from turning too far down.  Penguin was lying about something, but she wasn't totally sure what; he had told too much of the truth in there, too.  She resolved to tell Fantasia at the first opportunity; perhaps two heads would be better than one in figuring that out.

"A likely story.  Ye'll f'rgive me iffin I donna believe it in full." Fantasia huffed, dropping the dwarf on his fat behind.  Penguin glared up at him and growled softly, starting to get to his feet.

"I don't want him following us…" Xack said quietly, and Fantasia gave her a quick nod.  He reached out, gently placing a hand on her shoulder again, and before she could flinch away, Penguin was looking around in pure shock.

"Wh…WHA?!  W-where did you go?" he squawked.

He spun on the spot, starting to panic and drawing his umbrella, and Fantasia pulled Zack away a few feet to avoid being impaled.

"Don't tell me I'm seeing things…" Penguin muttered, "I'm NOT crazy…"

He kept looking around for a moment longer, then frowned and started to stalk off in another direction, carrying himself and holding his umbrella in a manner that would have done Elmer Fudd proud.  Xack glanced up at Fantasia, and this time, she was surprised to see a slight hazy shimmer outlining him.

"Invisibility spell again?" she whispered.

He grinned and winked.

***

Guenhivyre watched, trying to choke back her sense of disgust just enough to keep from vomiting on the lab floor.  Her heart went out to Adrian, whose eyes were wide and fever-bright, not seeing anything before her as the T-99 attacked her insides.  Her back arched, her limbs went rigid, and she began to thrash violently against the restraints that held her to the operating table.  Patches of her skin started to bubble and blister, and in a few of these, the darker patches burst as tiny black scales broke through her skin.  Milo watched the entire process with that same, sickening leer on his face that never failed to shake Guen to her core.  He was happy as a child on Christmas morning, not caring that he was utterly ruining the life of an innocent woman beyond repair.

Guen wondered if he had watched her own mutation process the same way.

Adrian whimpered and groaned, and finally, her thrashing ceased and she went limp and still.

"All-in-all, I'd say the process is going very well so far, wouldn't you, Guenhivyre?" he said gleefully.

She ignored him and approached the table.

"Guenhivyre?"

"Miss Davis," she murmured softly, "Can you hear me?  How do you feel?"

The blonde head stirred and Adrian looked up.

"Got any painkillers…?" she whispered, "I feel like a tossed salad."

Guen went rigid, the color draining from her face.

Adrian's eyes were pure amber orbs, broken only by pupils shaped like slits.


	15. Endgames

**Twisted Souls Endgames**

\------------------  
A Few Words From the Author

Hello, everyone. It is with a deep sigh of relief that I present to you all, in tentative quotations, the “end” of Twisted Souls. I am sure many of you are unhappy to hear that I am not continuing the story in chapter format, but let us be reasonable in our recollections that, due to events beyond my control, there is no way that I could have seamlessly finished writing the fanfiction without jarring us all.

But the storyteller within me was not content to just leave Twisted Souls unfinished as it was. Therefore I am here to summarize for you all where the plot was going, and I shall present to you the endings for the different characters involved, with the exception of those whose endings occur in my companion fanfic to this one, Cry Wolf. (There have been necessary complete omissions to the work, particularly where certain characters were involved, and for that, I apologize, but otherwise you are finally getting the end to the story.)

The Plot Summary

Following the events of chapter 14, Batman and Batgirl confer with Incubus and Lady Templar, seeking to find a plan of action concerning the mass breakout from Arkham, and Batgirl and Lady Templar head to the asylum in search of more clues. While there, they discover the alliance between Strange and Ra’s, but on heading back to warn Batman, they don’t get away unscathed, thanks to Gawain. In the meantime, Joker finally catches up with the main congregation at Pendragon Manor, where he exposes Penguin, Xack and Fantasia for following him. A good deal of mayhem follows, thanks to confusion, anxiety, and overall annoyance on the part of everyone, until a phone call from the mansion’s rightful owner, Guen’s older brother Lance, sobers everyone up. Lance places this call to announce that he is coming home with his new girlfriend, Jeanette Harker, and a mad scramble follows to try to vacate the manor, during which Joker and Xack vanish.

Around this same time, Ra’s Al Ghul and Professor Strange put their plan of action into motion, using sorcery to create ripples in space, which are portals for foul netherworld monsters to enter Gotham, and sending the Society of Shadows to throw the city into a total lockdown, causing chaos and panic throughout Gothamites. When neighboring city Metropolis tries unsuccessfully to send help to the barricaded Gotham, news spreads faster than wildfire, and the group of escapees learns of what’s occurring. From within the safety of a makeshift hideout, (courtesy of the Riddler, who’s broken out of Arkham for his own reasons and met up with them,) the group maps out Gotham, dividing the city into different “zones” based on where the ripples occur and how far monsters stray from their origin point to a certain radius. They split up into different groups to tackle different zones and take down the monsters. (After all, no monsters have the right to take over their city.)

While these plans are being drawn up, Wraith and Riddler’s secret attraction to one another is made obvious to everyone, (much to the irritation of Milo,) and during a private conversation, Neil learns that Wraith is not the “angel of death” he believes her to be and starts to plot vengeance for her lies. The gang then leaves to tackle their different zones, and Fantasia meets up with Spellbinder and Hex along the way. He begins resisting Spellbinder’s orders, largely in part thanks to Hex, who finally reveals her feelings for him. Spellbinder becomes infuriated at his sudden lack of control over Fantasia, and seethes with jealousy from the shadows as he watches his protégé win over the young mage. Several other [very short] instances occur simultaneously involving romantic drama, until Jervis and Erin report to be the first to encounter monsters.

Batman and the rapidly-expanding Bat-family have finally managed to successfully interrogate a member of the Society of Shadows at this point, and head to Arkham Asylum again, with the intent of putting a stop to Ra’s and Strange’s plans. Unfortunately, they do not arrive in time to prevent Ra’s from casting his summoning spell, and the largest ripple occurs, through which the eldritch demon-god Laeklaklith emerges, called to purge the city of its human filth. Much to the utter surprise of everyone present, Laeklaklith’s physical form cannot withstand the strain the human plane puts on him, and he possesses Gawain’s body, fleeing the scene before anyone can stop him.

The rest of the gang fights an ever-increasing number of monsters, their strength beginning to dwindle until Batman and Bat-family make an appearance on the scene, the rest of the more dangerous Arkhamites in tow, thanks to a desperate gamble on Batman’s part. While the inmates fight alongside Batgirl, Incubus, and Lady Templar, Batman seeks to find a way to release Gawain from Laeklaklith’s control, as it seems the demon-god can project most of its spirit outside of Gawain’s body while simply using him as a material anchor. But before he can do so, he goes to the aid of detectives Ellen Yin and Cash Tankenson, (who aren’t about to let a fight pass up without their help,) and catches sight of a familiar, yet unexpected figure going to the child’s aid…

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Endgames: (Neil Davis) and Curiosity

This was it, the perfect opportunity. He had waited for this as patiently as his temper would allow, and now he had to take his chance before the window of opportunity snapped shut. He gingerly made his way closer and closer to the ring of girls, all meeting quickly to discuss their game plan for tackling the next wave of demons. He almost snorted in derision; the irony of their little game! Truly they had no concept of what they were doing, the innocent ones, aiding the demon that called itself an angel. But then again, that’s what they had been, and that’s what they still did, didn’t they? The fallen angels that owed their allegiance to Satan, they still plagued humans by sweetly and covertly pretending to be the beings of light they once were.

Neil smiled grimly, eyes flashing as they lit upon Sadie among the rest of the group. He would show her the truth of the matter, where she had been so reluctant to believe him before. And the rest…they would fall prostrate at his feet, begging forgiveness for their ignorance once they realized he had saved their souls from utter damnation at the hands of the false angel. Taking a deep, slow breath to steel his nerves, he withdrew the bloodstained, scored knife from within its hiding spot in his boot, dug his heels into the soft earth, and after a heartbeat, he sprang forward in a charge, aiming for the soft spot on Guen’s back between the folds of her wings.

But then something happened that Neil did not expect.

"LOOK OUT!"

Sadie's shout of warning mixed with Guen's yelp of suprise as the green-haired girl tackled her to the ground, and Neil tripped, momentum flinging him forward through the group of girls, who barely ducked out of the way. Flipping head over heels, Neil squeezed himself into a compact ball and hit the ground at a roll, uncurling only to slow to a stop. The scrapes from the asphalt began to bleed and sting, but he shook it off, locking physical discomfort away as his mind remained in the void that had him running on autopilot.

"Neil, what the hell?" Came the rough shout, Guen's voice switching from its normal melodius gentle nature to that of her more dangerous personality. Not that it mattered whether she shifted between her forms of "defender" or "warrior"; a false angel was still a false angel, and that meant she was no better than the demon filth that infested the city.

She would die slowly and suffer from the burning holy fires of his righteousness.

"Dude, chill out!" Banshee said, hand slowly drifting to one of the uzis at her hip. Neil's eyes flicked to her only briefly, then locked back onto Wraith. What he didn't notice was Sadie's gaze slip past him and widen in terror.

"Oh...holy...shit," she murmured, "Neil?"

"Don't try to stop me, Sadie," he hissed, his voice coming out as a scratchy growl, "I'm purging us all of a soul-staining shadow, and if I have to go through you as well, I shall."

"Neil..." Sadie shook her head, eyes going wider and wider. "Neil, behind you..."

"Ha! Do you think I'm going to--"

Pain unlike anything he had ever felt in his life, broke through the shield of his voidlike trance, as several sharp things broke through the skin of his leg and something crushed the muscle underneath with a wet crunch. A yell of agony and surprise tore itself from him, and he swung around, to stare in shock at the last thing he had expected to happen.

Something huge and snake-like with eight flashing eyes and the jaws of a crocodile had bitten down on his leg and was slowly dragging him backward. Long, ropy tentacles of sinewy muscles ending in barbs dripping with venom sprang from its back, and whipped at the air around him. With a snarl of defiance, Neil kicked out with his free foot, slamming the heel of his boot into the demon-beast's teeth repeatedly.

"NEIL!" One of the girls screamed, and the monster released him...for a second.

This time the powerful jaws came down on his midsection, puncturing through the flesh of his stomach, and he screamed in unbridled pain, blood leaving his body in burning, crimson geysers. He opened his eyes briefly, saw the false angel and her lackeys staring in astonishment...and beyond them, backing away, was Sadie. Slowly a smile spread over her face, and her fang-like teeth glinted in a grin, one that said she found this end fitting.

Neil let out one final wordless cry as the demon-beast tossed him into the air. And then the world vanished in a black void of tormented agony.

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Endgames: Wraith and Riddler

One by one, they fell beneath the swings of her scythe, the darkness leaving their bodies in clouds that she danced in. She reveled in it, and more than ever she felt the part of the angel of death, the role she had assumed to placate Neil.

Finally the demon-beasts began to vanish in wisps of curling smoke and she came to a halt, opening her eyes fully to see the Riddler watching her, a smile slowly forming on his black lips.

"You're absolutely stunning when you're like this." He said, and she grinned back at him.

"Being a twisted thing isn't anything too stunning." She replied, lowering and collapsing the scythe back into its compact form.

"That's not my point, and you know it." He responded.

"Got a riddle for you, Eddy."

"Oh?"

"Yes." she murmured, closing the distance between them and wrapping her arms around his neck, pressing her lips to his.

"And that would be?" He asked once they broke the contact.

"What's it going to take for me to get you to ask me out on a date already?"

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Endgames: Jervis and Erin

They were surrounded. The monsters were on all sides, fangs dripping with venom, claws ringing with a sound like knives being sharpened, eyes burning with the low intelligence of hunting animals. Erin swallowed hard, taking a step back, her hand tightening where it was on Jervis's sleeve, heart beginning to pound on her ribcage. She wasn't used to being frightened; she was just as tough as Wraith and the other girls at heart. But she wasn't a fighter, and she was no match for these monsters physically.

"What are we going to do?" She murmured. "We can't get away. Is this...is this the end of the dance...?"

But the Mad Hatter clearly had something else in mind. Slowly, he pulled the top hat from his head, face dark with fury, and he stared down the monsters.

"You're late for tea, boys," he murmured, "And the queen says it's off with your heads."

The monsters snarled, surging forward, and with a flick of his wrist, Jervis flung the hat, letting it spin through the air like a frisbee. Blades popped out of the hat's brim, so thin and sharp Erin couldn't believe for a moment they were real. Several of the monsters in the hat's path recoiled, shrieking in pain as they came into contact with the spinning blades, and the unfortunate beast into whom's face the hat finally connected, received the most unpleasant shock of all.

The hat exploded, flaming napalm spitting in all directions at the monsters, and Jervis led her away as fast as he could, to avoid them being hit by his own weapon. He withdrew more of the ten-six cards from within the folds of his threadbare suit and flung them behind him. More explosions followed, and Erin's heart pounded in her chest, fear battling enraptured exhilaration.

"Never fret, my queen," Jervis murmured in his silky voice as he swept her into his arms and ran at top speed, "Those brutish bandersnatches won't lay a finger on you. Not as long as the Mad Hatter continues to draw breath."

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Endgames: Magpie, Banshee, and Incubus

"Mags, Xena kick-wheel!"

Magpie reached for Banshee's hands as she jumped. They locked their grips on each other's wrists as Banshee picked up on her momentum, and began to spin in a circle, unleashing a blood-curdling screech as Magpie ran parallel above the ground, kicking out with the modified spike-shoes. Without fail, each kicking step connected with another of the shadow monsters, and they fell back, roaring in pain. But Banshee's hold on her began to slip, and suddenly Magpie was flying through the air, screaming for dear life.

She was caught roughly by Incubus as he came out of a frenzy of fighting, and clung to him like a life ring.

"Nice move, ladies!" He said with one of his roguish grins. "We make a good team, don't you think?"

"Eh, I can dig a man with a good right hook." Banshee chuckled, Uzis back in her hands once more as she trotted to them, firing almost casually, unloading full clips into the monsters.

"Flirt later!" Magpie gasped as she jumped out of Incubus's arms, reaching for one of the discarded pipes and bashing another beast's skull in. Incubus spun around and resumed beating things in the face with his pimp cane, seemingly tireless.

And then, just as suddenly as they had appeared, the shadow-men simply vanished into thin air with despairing wails, and several of them were sucked back into the ripple in the air, which closed with a sucking sound like a plunger being pulled out of a sink.

"What, that's it?" Incubus said after a moment's pause.

"Oh, thank God!" Magpie exhaled, sinking to the ground and sitting on her knees to catch her breath.

"What are you talking about?" Banshee whined. "I was having fun!"

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Endgames: Milo and Lady Templar

Milo sat back, leaning against the wall, finally taking a moment to relax. It was done, then. The ripples in the atmosphere were diminishing everywhere, if not stopping altogether. His limbs felt weak and weary, and the stench of the blood that soaked his lab coat and scalpel were starting to make him somewhat dizzy. Slowly, he let out a shaking laugh, feeling strangely triumphant. They had succeeded.

And now Guenhivyre would see that he was the only man for her.

Without warning, something struck him in the sternum, knocking the breath from him, and he gasped in pain as a fist gloved in chainmail slammed into him, gripping his shirt collar and lifting him off the ground.

"Bitch!" He rasped, glaring at his attacker. "What the hell are you doing?"

He broke out in a cold sweat as he stared into the masked face of Lady Templar, her mouth set in a grim line of hatred. He reached up, trying to pry her fist from him, but it was to no avail, and the best he could hope for was to draw as many ragged half-breaths as he could.

"I'm doin' what I do best," she answered in an icy voice, "Tyin' up a loose end."

"Stupid bitch," he spat, "Did you forget that I helped kill some of those damned monsters?"

"Oh, I didn't forget, bowlcut."

She brought him close to her face, and he swallowed hard, terror twisting his chest in knots.

"I also didn't forget about what you did to that girl."

His eyes went wide as he felt the onset of panic.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

She flung her wrist with ease, her strength astonishing him, and slammed him against the brick wall hard enough he was sure something in his spinal cord fractured.

"The hell you don't." She snorted.

"You don't know a damned thing about my relationship with Miss Pendragon." He shot back between gasps.

"I know enough." She answered, bringing him close again, and this time she withdrew something from the folds of her white-and-crimson tunic. His eyes caught the glint of metal winking in the streetlight.

"Whatcha think you're going to do, vigilante?" He laughed. "Kill me?"

"Oh, I ain't that depraved, boy. Even I got standards." She answered. "This is your ticket to the funhouse."

"You can't put me in Arkham, idiot," he laughed, rolling his eyes, "Anyone can see I'm perfectly sane."

"Really?" She challenged, adjusting the position of the object in her hand. And then he recognized what she held.

A syringe, stolen from his lab, full of the orange hallucinogen he'd developed weeks ago.

"No." He gasped. "No. No no no no, you can't do this to me!"

A wonderfully evil grin twisted her face.

"Watch me." She answered, plunging the needle into the side of his neck before he could twitch a muscle.

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Endgames: Batman, Batgirl, and Commissioner Gordon

"So that's the end of it." Gordon exhaled, lowering his automatic, finally allowing himself to relax a bit. His hands were shaking violently, despite the calm tone in his voice. Batman glanced down at Batgirl, seeing the worry on her face as she watched her father, helpless to comfort him.

"I don't think this is entirely over, Commissioner." Batman murmured, glancing around to survey the scene, still holding the batarang openly in his hand. "The ones behind this are still out there."

"You want me to arrest someone for suspected demon-summoning?" Gordon asked incredulously. "Not to step on anyone's toes, Batman, but I'm not sure those are charges that would fly well in a courtroom."

Batman looked him in the eye, never missing a beat.

"What if I told you that one of the men behind this was also responsible for all the sudden escape of those patients from Arkham?"

Gordon's eyebrows shot up, but he never missed a beat either. "Now that's something we could get an arrest warrant for. _If_ you've got proof to back it up."

For a moment, Batman was at a loss to respond, but a rustling next to him caught the attention of both men as Batgirl held up a pocket tape recorder.

"Say no more, boys." She declared triumphantly before throwing Batman a smug look. "Really, you've got no faith in me."

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Endgames: Gawain, Clayface, Ra’s, and Strange

Gawain steadied himself, leaning against the wall. His head was still buzzing loudly, and felt like his arms were full of pudding and his legs were made of wet noodles, but he was alive, and that... _thing_ wasn't in his brain any more. His green eyes opened slowly, and he looked up into a different set of green eyes, set in a misshapen, inhuman face.

"You okay, kid?" Clayface asked in his rattling, gurgling voice. With a bit of an effort and a sudden pounding in his temple, Gawain nodded.

"W-why'd you save me?" He demanded, glaring at Clayface in open suspicion. He was, after all, one of Hugo Strange's patients, and very few of them liked the psychiatrist. It made no sense why Clayface would save him, the doctor's son.

The shoulders of rippling white clay shrugged, then solidified as the shapeshifter molded himself into a more human appearance. He looked vaguely familiar, the mocha-skinned man who now stood before the boy, but Gawain couldn't place his finger on why.

"Guess I can't forget who I really am." Clayface replied in a steady, rich voice before turning and walking away. Gawain watched him go, confused, as his dad and Ra's approached from behind.

"Gawain? Gawain?" His dad's voice sounded strange, with the buzzing in his head. "Are you alright?"

He nodded once, then put a hand to his temple. "Dizzy, that's all." He answered.

"And...Laeklaklith?" Ra's asked.

"I don't know what happened." Gawain murmured. "One second I heard his voice in my head, and then...Clayface..."

"Clayface?" Strange prompted, a note of interest in his voice.

"Yeah, he showed up and trapped me somehow...like I was in a big ball...and Laeklaklith freaked out. Next thing I knew, I felt like somebody was ripping something out of me with a bunch of hooks, and Clayface and I were falling, and Laeklaklith was gone." He murmured.

"Then...where _is_ Clayface, Gawain?" Strange asked while Ra's cursed under his breath at the loss of the demon-god. Gawain turned, ready to point.

"He's--"

The street stood empty apart from the dissipating mist.

"right...here..."

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Endgames: Fantasia, Hex, Spellbinder, Cash and Ellen

More of the monsters slammed into Fantasia's shield, exploding with howls of pain. Hex clung to him, shivering and whimpering. Never before had he wanted to protect something so badly in his entire life. And so he poured more and more of his energy into maintaining the deadly energy shield, sweat forming on his brow as he strained with concentration.

"I'm so sorry, Fanty..." she whispered. "If I wasn't spent..."

"Donna worry, milove." He murmured back, squeezing her in his arms. "We'll weather this together."

"What about Spellbinder?"

Chills rushed through Fantasia's body as the scene flashed before his eyes once again. Spellbinder had never been his favorite person in the world, particularly due to the life debt he owed the mystic, but to the shock of them all, Spellbinder had pushed both he and Hex aside, allowing the shadow-monster to take him as its prey. He could still feel those dark eyes burning into his as the words echoed in his ears.

_"I'll be back to see the debt repaid."_

He shuddered. The binding force of the magic behind the life debt had doubled on the mystic's debt.

Fantasia owed him twice now.

And since Spellbinder hadn't lived to see even the first life debt repaid...

He shook his head, concentrating again on the shield. He didn't want to think about what was going to happen.

He cradled Hex in his arms long after the demon-beasts disappeared, and the only difference that occurred then was the sudden vigor with which she began to kiss him.

But unbeknowst to them, Spellbinder was watching. He wasn't sure how he could still see them. After all, hadn't he died? He was quite certain he had. And yet, he could still feel the pull of his debt with Fantasia, and the mindlink with Hex.

He had unfinished business to attend to.

His essence strayed from them as he wandered away, seeking a pliable host vessel.

His hazy wandering through the gray mists of limbo landed him near the police force, where a wounded Cash Tankenson and Ellen Yin were limping to rejoin Commissioner Gordon and Batman. Some strange energy flared in the misty, gray void, and it enticed him. Yin? No, not her...not quite.

But it was a ripe opportunity, and he wasn't about to pass it up.

He had found his host vessel, and luckily enough, before it had formed its own soul.

He would be back before long. But until then, he would sleep in his new body, awaiting his reawakening...


End file.
